The Describe Window

This window is used to describe communication parameters of a new managed device or change the parameters of the existing device.  NMS uses these parameters to communicate with the device.

Using the Describe window

The Describe window contains several standard fields, which are required for any device:

1. In the Name field, type in a logical name to identify the managed device.

2. The Notepad field can be filled with any additional verbal details about the device, e.g. additional location details or specific comments.

An additional group of parameters that are needed in the Describe window are specific to NMS and are required to enable communication with the managed devices:

3. The Interfaces List defines all the interfaces the device has for communication with NMS. The priority of each interface is determined according to the order in which the interfaces are defined in the Interface List of the Describe window:

  a. The highest priority for establishing communication is given to the first interface on the list; if communication fails to be established, the next interface listed will be tried.

  b. To define an interface, open the Add Interface Window by clicking the Add button in the Describe window.

4. In the Add Interface Window, place the cursor in the IP Address field and enter the IP address for the interface of the managed device.

5. Select the Interface type as follows:

 Ethernet - when this interface is connected to the Ethernet LAN

 SLIP - when the interface is connected to the serial line with/without modem.

6. In the Polling Interval field, enter the value to specify the interval time between polls - in seconds through this interface of the managed device.

Note:

Set the Polling Interval time with caution: a large value may cause a slow response to network errors, while a small value may flood the network with large amounts of management traffic.

7. Click on the OK button in the Add Interface Window for the newly-defined interface to be added to the Describe interfaces list. Click Cancel to cancel the definition of this interface.

Repeat the above steps for each interface of the managed device.

To make changes to any defined interface, select and highlight the interface to be changed, by clicking it. Click on the Modify button to open the Modify Interface window.

To delete any previously defined interface, select and highlight the defined interface to delete and click in the Delete button.

8. In the SNMP Community Names section, enter the SNMP Community string to be used for this device with the SNMP GET and SET requests, in the Name for Get box and Name for Set box accordingly. (The default values should be "public" (lower case letters) for Get operations and "private" for Set operations).

9. Click the OK button to close the Describe window and accept the details for the newly defined device. The symbol representing the defined device now appears in the submap.

a. Click Cancel if you want to abort the definition of the device. This removes the places device symbol from the submap. When clicking the Cancel button in a Describe window for a   previously defined device, the window is closed and all changes performed in it are lost.

b. After a managed device has been successfully defined, it is polled every poll interval to establish communication. The device’s configuration is automatically learned after initial connection is established.