Creating fully featured poll policies

Use the Poll Policy Editor to create a fully-featured poll policy with multiple poll definitions and complete scoping features.

About this task

Using the Poll Policy Editor you can create a poll policy with the following features:
  • Multiple poll definitions. You can use existing poll definitions or you can create new poll definitions.
  • Network views. You can restrict the set of devices to poll to those contained by the selected network views.
  • Device Filter. You can further refine the list of devices selected by the network views using this simple filter on the mainNodeDetails table.
Note: You can further restrict the poll policy scope by filtering the scope of each of the poll definitions contained within this poll policy. You can filter poll definition scope by device class and by interface.

Procedure

  1. Click the Administration icon and select Network > Network Polling.
  2. Create a new policy by doing one of the following:
    • To create a new policy from scratch, click Add New Add New button. The Poll Policy Editor opens.
    • To clone an existing policy, perform the following steps:
      1. In the Select column select the check box next to the required row and click Copy Selected Items Copy selected item or items button.
      2. Click OK. The copy is named using the following convention: policyname_1, where policyname is the name of the copied policy. For example, if you copied the policy bgpPeerState, then the copy will be named bgpPeerState_1. Poll policies are ordered alphabetically so in this example, the copy bgpPeerState_1 would appear in the list immediately after the copied policy bgpPeerState.
      3. Click the name of the copy of the poll policy in the list to open the Poll Policy Editor.
  3. From the Poll Policy Properties tab, specify a value for each property:
    Name
    Type the unique name that you want to give the poll policy. Only alphanumeric characters, spaces and underscores are allowed.
    Poll Enabled
    Select this check box to enable the poll policy. Ensure that you have specified at least one poll definition for the policy before enabling it.
    Poll Definitions

    Use this table to specify one or more poll definitions for the poll policy.

    Refresh Refresh
    Refreshes the data in the table. This updates the table with any changes made by other users since you logged on or since you last clicked Refresh.
    Delete Selected Item(s) Delete Selected button
    Deletes the selected rows.
    Add Poll Definition(s) to this Policy Add New button
    Opens the Poll Definitions panel where you can specify one or more poll definitions to add to the poll policy.
    Search Search table
    Searches the table for text entered in the Search field. By default the search is performed on all of the columns in the table. Click the down arrow to the left of the Search field to limit the search to one or more columns in the table.
    • Select the checkboxes corresponding to the columns that you want to limit the search to.
    • Select All Columns to revert to the default search settings.
    • Click OK once you have made your selection.
    Poll Definitions table
    The list of poll definitions attached to this poll policy is presented in a table. You can perform the following actions on this table. Any settings made are valid for this session only.
    Hide Toolbar Hide table toolbar
    Hides the toolbar. If the toolbar is hidden, click Show Toolbar Show table toolbar to show the toolbar.
    Sort Column
    Click the column header to sort that column in descending order. Click the column a second time to sort the column in ascending order. Further clicks toggle the column between descending and ascending order. The meaning of ascending and descending order varies according to the type of data in the column:
    Alphabetical data
    Ascending order orders the data from a to z. Descending order orders the data from z to a.
    Numerical data
    Ascending order orders the data from lowest to highest. Descending order orders the data from highest to lowest.
    Icon
    Ascending order orders the icons from the highest to lowest value associated with the icon. Descending order orders the icons from the lowest to highest value associated with the icon. The values associated with each icon are listed below.
    Resize a column
    Click and drag the vertical line separator to the right of the column heading.
    Dynamic Indexing Supported?
    This column contains Yes if dynamic indexing is supported or No if not.
    Select All/Clear All
    Select the check box to select all rows. If all rows are selected, clear the check box to clear all rows. Select the check box next to a row to select a single row or to clear a single selected row.
    Store?
    Select the check box to store data collected by this poll definition for reporting and historical MIB graphing purposes.
    Note: This option is only available for poll definitions of type Basic Threshold.
    Name
    The name of a poll definition attached to this poll policy. Click the name to edit the properties of this poll definition.
    Type
    The type of poll definition.
    Status
    Indicates whether the poll definition is in error. The full list of values is provided in the following table.
    Table 1. Poll definition status
    State Value Icon Description
    Unknown -1 Unknown The status is unknown because the poll definition has not been run yet.
    No error 0 Finished No error. Poll definition has been run without error.
    Error Greater than 0 Default alert status icon for the severity level 5("critical") There is an error in the poll definition. The poll definition cannot be run. The error must be fixed before the poll definition can be used. Hover over the status icon for a pop-up with an indication of the error.
    Poll Interval
    Specify the required interval in seconds between poll operations. Click the arrows to change the value.
    Description
    Description of the poll definition.
    V4.2 FixPack 17:Selected Index
    V4.2 FixPack 17:The dynamic index selected for this poll.
    Choose Dynamic Index
    If the poll definition supports dynamic indexing, optionally choose or enter an index to poll:
    • Click the Choose Dynamic Index button to choose an index.
    • If you know the index, enter it in the Dynamic Index (if applicable) field.
    • If you want to poll all indexes on the devices, do not enter or choose an index.

    After you click the Choose Dynamic Index button, choose a device to query for available indexes.

    • If you know the name or IP address of the device, enter it in the Device field.
    • If you do not know the name or IP address of the device, click Show Applicable Devices. A list of the devices that are in scope for this poll policy is displayed. Select a device from the list.
      Note: Choosing a device here does not change the scope of the poll policy.

    Click Query Device to display a list of indexes on the selected device for the poll definition. Select the index that you want to poll from the list.

    Click Ignore Instance Filtering to bypass any instance filters that were configured for the SNMP Helper.

    Assign to Poller Instance
    Select the poller on which to run the poll policy.
    Policy Throttle
    The number of devices in certain types of network views, especially event-based network views, can fluctuate and become large. In order to prevent the Polling engine, ncp_poller, from become overloaded by large numbers of devices in the network views attached to a policy, you can place a limit on the number of devices attached to a poll policy. This limit is called a policy throttle.
    Specify the maximum number of entities to limit polling to. The poll policy will poll no more than the number of entities specified here.
    Note: Disable policy throttling by setting this value to zero. All new poll policies have policy throttling disabled by default.
  4. If you chose to add a poll definition to the poll policy then specify the poll definitions to add in the Poll Definitions panel using the following buttons and fields:
    Refresh Refresh
    Refreshes the data in the table. This updates the table with any changes made by other users since you logged on or since you last clicked Refresh.
    Search Search table
    Searches the table for text entered in the Search field. By default the search is performed on all of the columns in the table. Click the down arrow to the left of the Search field to limit the search to one or more columns in the table.
    • Select the checkboxes corresponding to the columns that you want to limit the search to.
    • Select All Columns to revert to the default search settings.
    • Click OK once you have made your selection.
    Poll Definitions table
    The complete list of poll definitions defined on the system. Poll definitions already attached to this poll policy have a greyed out checkbox. You can perform the following actions on this table. Any settings made are valid for this session only.
    V4.2 FixPack 17:Note: If a poll supports dynamic indexing, it has a + symbol next to its name.
    Hide Toolbar Hide table toolbar
    Hides the toolbar. If the toolbar is hidden, click Show Toolbar Show table toolbar to show the toolbar.
    Sort Column
    Click the column header to sort that column in descending order. Click the column a second time to sort the column in ascending order. Further clicks toggle the column between descending and ascending order. The meaning of ascending and descending order varies according to the type of data in the column:
    Alphabetical data
    Ascending order orders the data from a to z. Descending order orders the data from z to a.
    Numerical data
    Ascending order orders the data from lowest to highest. Descending order orders the data from highest to lowest.
    Icon
    Ascending order orders the icons from the highest to lowest value associated with the icon. Descending order orders the icons from the lowest to highest value associated with the icon. The values associated with each icon are listed below.
    Resize a column
    Click and drag the vertical line separator to the right of the column heading.
    Select All/Clear All
    Select the check box to select all rows. If all rows are selected, clear the check box to clear all rows. Select the check box next to a row to select a single row or to clear a single selected row.
    Name
    The name of a poll definition attached to this poll policy. Click the name to edit the properties of this poll definition.
    Type
    The type of poll definition.
    Description
    Description of the poll definition.
    Store Poll Data
    Select this check box to store the poll data so that it can be subsequently retrieved for reporting. The data is stored in the ncpolldata database.
    Restriction: Storage of polled data is not supported for the Cisco Remote Ping, the Juniper Remote Ping, and the Generic Threshold poll definitions.
    Interval
    Specify the required interval in seconds between poll operations. Click the arrows to change the value.
  5. Click the Network Views tab to set the poll scope. In the Network Views tree, select the check boxes of the required network views.
    The Network Views tree displays only those network views that belong to the network domain in which this poll policy is defined. Cross-domain network views do not appear, because poll policies apply to only one domain.
    Attention: If you select the All Devices option, then the system polls all devices that match the scope defined in the Device Filter tab. If no scope is set then, if you select the All Devices option, the poll that you create will poll all devices in the current network domain.

    You can further filter the poll policy scope by filtering the scope of each of the poll definitions contained within this poll policy. You can filter poll definition scope by device class and by interface.

  6. Optional: Click the Device Filter tab. This filters on devices on the mainNodeDetails device table only. Define the filter by using one of the following methods:
    • Type an SQL WHERE statement in the field in the Filter column.
      Note: SQL syntax is different for different databases. Refer to the documentation for the topology database that you are using for the correct SQL syntax.
    • Click Edit Open Filter Builder button to set up the filter by using the Filter Builder.
  7. Optional: In the Filter Builder, build the required query on one of the two tabs and then click OK:
    • On the Basic tab, select a field, a comparator, and type a value. Use the % character as a wildcard. The field is restricted to the selected attribute table.
    • On the Advanced tab, type the required SQL WHERE statement.
      Note: SQL syntax is different for different databases. Refer to the documentation for the topology database that you are using for the correct SQL syntax.
    The information that you enter on the Basic tab is automatically written to the Advanced tab.
  8. Optional: To add filters on other attribute tables, click Add new row Add new row button, and repeat the steps to edit the row and build the filter.
  9. Optional: To combine multiple filters, click All or Any:
    • All: Only network entities that match all the specified filters are polled. For example, if you create two filters, a network entity must match both filters.
    • Any: Network entities that match any of the specified filters are polled.
  10. Click Save.