Managing Categories and Devices on the Net Monitor

This section contains the following subsections:

•	Defining Categories

•	Editing Categories

•	Deleting Categories

•	Re-ordering Categories

•	Adding SonicWALL Appliances

•	Adding Other Devices

•

•	Deleting a Device

•	Assigning Permissions

Defining Categories

To create a new category, complete the following steps:

1	From the Net Monitor main page, select Add Category from the Category Menu.

 

 

2	The Add Category screen displays. Enter the name of the new category in the Name field.

 

 

3	When you are finished, click Apply. To cancel and start over, click Cancel.

4	Repeat this procedure for each category to add. This new category appears in the main toolbar of the Net Monitor page.

 

 

Editing Categories

To edit an existing category, complete the following steps:

1	From the Net Monitor main page, select Edit Category from the Category Menu.

 

 

2	Select the category name you want to change from the list.

3	Enter a new name for the selected category in the Name field.

 

 

4	When you are finished, click Apply. To cancel and start over, click Cancel.

Deleting Categories

To delete an existing category, complete the following steps:

1	From the Net Monitor main page, select Delete Category from the Categories Menu.

 

2	From the list provided, select the category name (shift-click for multiple category names) you want to delete.

3	Select Forcibly delete all devices under category to delete all devices in this category.

 

 

NOTE: A warning message displays when selecting Forcibly delete all devices under category. Click Yes to continue and delete this category.

4	To submit the delete request, click Apply. To cancel and start over, click Cancel.

Re-ordering Categories

To change the order of an existing category, complete the following steps:

1	From the Net Monitor main page, select Order Category from the Category Menu.

 

2	From the list provided, select the category name you want to move.

3	Click Move Up or Move Down to change the order of this category.

 

 

4	Click Apply to finish. To cancel and start over, click Cancel.

Adding SonicWALL Appliances

To add one or more SonicWALL appliances, complete the following steps:

1	From the Net Monitor page, select Add GMS Device from the File Menu.

 

2	Select a device or group to monitor and click Add in the center of the screen. Repeat this step for each device or group to monitor.

 

 

3	Click Next. The second page of the Add GMS Device Wizard appears.

 

 

4	Select the category to which the SonicWALL appliance(s) are added from the Use an Existing Category list box. To add the SonicWALL appliance(s) to a new category, enter the category name in the Add a New Category field.

5	Select the priority of the appliance(s) from the Category Priority list box.

6	Select how the SonicWALL appliance(s) are monitored from the Monitoring Type list box and specify a Port if applicable. If choosing SNMP as the monitoring type, you must enter a Monitor Port. Configure the following advanced settings by clicking Advanced.

 

 

 

Table 61. Advanced settings

Community	The community name. (default value is “public”).
Retry	Time to retry, in seconds (default value is “0”).
Timeout	Timeout length, in seconds (default value is “5”).
SNMP Version	Choose the version of SNMP to be used (default value is “V2C”).
MIB(s)*	Select the MIB(s) you wish to use for polling information (RFC1213-MIB is the default MIB and cannot be de-selected).
User Name	Enter a user name (SNMP v3 only).
Authentication Protocol	Select an authentication protocol form the list (SNMP v3 only).
Authentication Password	Enter an authentication password (SNMP v3 only).
Privacy Password	Enter a privacy password (SNMP v3 only).
Context ID	Enter a context ID (SNMP v3 only).
Context Name	Enter a context name (SNMP v3 only).

NOTE: Use extra caution when specifying the Retry and Timeout values, as the SNMP follows the “Exponential Back Off” algorithm to calculate the retry and timeout values. With this algorithm, the specified Timeout value increases exponentially with the retry value.

7	Press OK to save SNMP advanced settings.

8	Specify how often the SonicWALL appliance(s) will be tested in the Polling Interval field.

9	Enter the ideal response time (IRT) in the Ideal Response Time field (default: 500 milliseconds). SonicWALL appliances that take between 1 and 1.5 times the IRT are marked as Slow. SonicWALL appliances that take between 1.5 and 2 times the IRT are marked as Very Slow.

10	Select the Agent that completes the testing from the Assign to Monitor list box.

11	Optional. To disable monitoring of the SonicWALL appliance(s), select Disable.

12	To change the icon image that represents the device(s), click the icon image button and select a new image.

13

Click Next to continue. If you did not configure the Monitoring Type as SNMP, the Assign Privileges page displays. See Step 14. If you configured the Monitoring Type as SNMP, the SNMP Realtime Monitor Template Information page displays. Select the Realtime Monitor Template to apply to this device. Then, click Next.

NOTE: Multiple templates can be selected by holding Ctrl + selecting the templates. The Filter search bar allows you to narrow the list of templates. Execute an exact match search by using double quotation marks, for example “template name,” or search with no quotation marks to search through multiple keywords.

 

 

14	On the Assign Privileges page, select users to have read-write privileges.

NOTE: Multiple users can be selected by holding Ctrl + selecting the users. Permissions can be assigned to both Users and Usertypes.

 

 

15	Click Finish to acquire the new device.

NOTE: The process of acquiring a new device might take several minutes. To force acquisition of the device, select the device and go to SNMP > SNMP Re-acquire in the NetMonitor menu bar.

* Custom MIBs might be required for some devices. Custom MIBs allow polling Non-SonicWALL or Non-Standard based SNMP enabled devices and to poll information specific to a certain device based on Manufacturer ID. These MIBs have to be placed in the etc\mibs folder by the GMS Administrator on the Web Server and Monitoring Agent machine(s) in order to use it for probing.

Adding Other Devices

In addition to SonicWALL appliances, Dell SonicWALL GMS can monitor any publicly accessible servers or devices on the Internet.

To add one or more non-SonicWALL devices, complete the following steps:

1	From the Net Monitor screen, select Add Non-GMS Device from the File Menu.

 

 

2	Enter a name for the device in the Name field and its IP address or hostname in the Host field and click Add. Repeat this step for each device to monitor.

 

 

3	Click Next. The second page of the Add Non-GMS Device Wizard displays.

 

 

4	Select the category to which the device(s) is added from the Use an Existing Category list box. To add the device to a new category, enter the category name in the Add a New Category field.

5	Select the priority of the device(s) from the Category Priority list box.

6	Select how the SonicWALL appliance(s) are monitored from the Monitoring Type list box and specify a Port if applicable. If choosing SNMP as the monitoring type, you must enter a Monitor Port. Configure the following advanced settings by clicking Advanced.

 

Table 62. Advanced settings

Community	The community name. (default value is “public”)
Retry	Time to retry, in seconds (default value is “0”).
Timeout	Timeout length, in seconds (default value is “5”).
SNMP Version	Choose the version of SNMP to be used (default value is “V2C”).
MIB(s)*	Select the MIB(s) you wish to use for polling information (RFC1213-MIB is the default MIB and cannot be de-selected).
User Name	Enter a user name (SNMP v3 only).
Authentication Protocol	Select an authentication protocol form the list (SNMP v3 only)
Authentication Password	Enter an authentication password (SNMP v3 only).
Privacy Password	Enter a privacy password (SNMP v3 only).
Context ID	Enter a context ID (SNMP v3 only).
Context Name	Enter a context name (SNMP v3 only)

 

 

NOTE: Use extra caution when specifying the Retry and Timeout values, as the SNMP follows the “Exponential Back Off” algorithm to calculate the retry and timeout values. With this algorithm, the specified Timeout value increases exponentially with the retry value.

7	Press OK to save SNMP advanced settings.

8	Specify how often the SonicWALL appliance(s) will be tested in the Polling Interval field.

9	Enter the ideal response time (IRT) in the Ideal Response Time field (default: 500 milliseconds). SonicWALL appliances that take between 1 and 1.5 times the IRT is marked as Slow. SonicWALL appliances that take between 1.5 and 2 times the IRT is marked as Very Slow.

10	Select the Agent that executes the testing from the Assign to Monitor list box.

11	Optional. To disable monitoring of the SonicWALL appliance(s), select Disable.

12	To change the icon image that represents the device(s), click the icon image button and select a new image.

13

Click Next to continue. If you did not configure the Monitoring Type as SNMP, the Assign Privileges page displays. See Step 14. If you configured the Monitoring Type as SNMP, the SNMP Realtime Monitor Template Information page displays. Select the Realtime Monitor Template to apply to this device. Then, click Next.

NOTE: Multiple templates can be selected by holding Ctrl + selecting the templates. The Filter search bar allows you to narrow the list of templates. Execute an exact match search by using double quotation marks, for example “template name,” or search with no quotation marks to search through multiple keywords.

 

 

14	On the Assign Privileges page, select users to have read-write privileges.

NOTE: Multiple users can be selected by holding Ctrl + selecting the users. Permissions can be assigned to both Users and Usertypes.

 

 

15	Click Finish to acquire the new device.

NOTE: The process of acquiring a new device might take several minutes. To force acquisition of the device, select the device and go to SNMP > SNMP Re-acquire in the NetMonitor menu bar.

 

CAUTION: Custom MIBs might be required for some devices. Custom MIBs allow polling Non-SonicWALL or Non-Standard based SNMP enabled devices and to poll information specific to a certain device based on Manufacturer ID. These MIBs have to be placed in the etc\mibs folder by the GMS Administrator on the Web Server and Monitoring Agent machine(s) in order to use it for probing.

Editing a Device

You can edit some of the properties of a specific device by right-clicking the device you want to edit, then click Properties. Multiple devices can be selected by holding Ctrl + selecting the devices.

When editing a single Non-GMS managed device, the Edit Device wizard displays, where you can edit the device Name and Host IP address in their respective fields.

Continue with the device wizard to edit Monitor Information and Realtime Monitor Template Information. Note these are the same setting you originally configured when adding the device.

When editing a GMS Managed device or multiple devices, the Properties screen displays:

The Change check box appears next to each of the fields that have a difference in values for that field among the devices selected. If there are no differences, the field does not appear. After Change is selected, the value for the corresponding field is overwritten on all selected fields.

Note that selecting Disable applies changes to all selected devices.

Click Finish to complete editing the device settings.

NOTE: You can only rename non-GMS devices. GMS devices cannot be renamed as the name is synched with the assigned name from the Tree Control automatically.

Deleting a Device

To delete a device, right click on the device you wish to delete and click Delete Device. A warning displays, confirming the device(s) you have selected to delete. Click Yes to continue.

 

NOTE: Multiple devices can be selected by holding Ctrl + selecting the templates. Make sure to select all devices before right-clicking to delete.

Assigning Permissions

Privileges to a device can now be assigned on a per user or per user group basis. When adding a Net Monitor device, an Assign Permission dialog box displays in the Add Device Wizard, listing all users in the system. Upon adding the device(s), you are also able to select the users and user groups to grant permissions to.

To add or update permissions to an existing device, navigate to Console > Management > Edit Users