Hardware Monitoring: Physical Network Cards not Discovered on Sun Solaris Systems

  • kb1005
  • Sep. 9, 2009
  • 2 min read

What to do if Hardware Sentry KM for PATROL or BPM Express for Hardware fail to discover network adapters on Sun Solaris systems.

Problem Sun Solaris

Related Topics

Description

On Sun Solaris systems (all models), Hardware Sentry KM and BMC Performance Manager Express for Hardware does not discover cards that are not listed with the following system command: 

 /usr/sbin/ifconfig  -a

Network interfaces that are not listed by this command correspond to “unplumbed” network devices, i.e. network cards that are not configured in Solaris to be used as a regular device.

Symptoms

In the PATROL Console, under the “Network Cards” folder, some network adapters are not listed by Hardware Sentry.

In BMC Portal, under the “Devices” folder, some network adapters are not listed by BMC Performance Manager Express for Hardware.

No error message is displayed.

Solution

Hardware Sentry KM and BMC Performance Manager Express for Hardware have two different ways to discover and monitor network adapters on Sun Solaris systems:

  • Solaris system commands (ifconfig, kstat, ndd, etc.)
  • Solari' snmpd agent

The SNMP-based discovery and monitoring is preferred by the KM and the PM, which means that if snmpd is properly configured and running and if the KM or the PM has been provided with the SNMP community, it will default to the SNMP-based collection.

To know which way is currently being used by the KM or the PM, look at the instances under the “Detected Connectors” icon:

  • If the connector named “Sun Solaris - Network" is listed, it means the KM or PM is using the Solaris system commands
  • If the connector named “MIB-2 Standard SNMP Agent - Network Interfaces - Solaris", it means the KM or PM is using SNMP.

You first need to make sure the KM or PM does NOT use SNMP to discover the network cards. The SNMP layer of Solaris never provides any information about unplumbed network cards, which means that such adapters will never be visible through this SNMP. Therefore, in order to see these cards, you will need to prevent the KM and the PM from using SNMP to monitor the network cards. You can do so by specifically removing the SNMP community setting in the configuration of the KM or PM.

For Hardware Sentry KM, [right-click] on the main “Hardware” icon › [KM Commands] › [This Syste's Settings…] › [Connection, Credentials and Connectors…]. Make sure the SNMP Community field is empty.

For BMC Performance Manager Express for Hardware, edit the input properties for the “Hardware (Solaris)” application class and make sure the “SNMP Community” field is empty. This procedure will leave greyed-out instances (corresponding to the network adapters discovered through SNMP) that will need to be removed manually with the standard BMC Portal interface.

Once you have made sure the KM or PM is using the “Sun Solaris - Network" connector to discover and monitor the network cards, you will need to apply the following patch. Otherwise, the unplumbed network adapters will not be properly discovered.

  • Patch P1088 fixes the problem in Hardware Sentry KM version 1.6.00. It is recommended that users of earlier versions to upgrade to version 1.6.00 and apply this patch.
  • Patch P1089 fixes the problem in BMC Performance Manager Express for Hardware version 2.7.00. It is recommended that users of version 2.6.00 upgrade to the version 2.7.00 and apply this patch.
Problem Sun Solaris