Cisco ACI Monitoring

Frequently asked questions:

1.WHat are the pre-requisites to add a Cisco ACI in OpManager?

1. Ensure the default monitoring ports are enabled. Refer to our hardware and software requirements page for details on required ports.
2. The ACI credential port (bi-directional) configured in the Cisco ACI credential should be enabled in the firewall.
3. Proper ACI credentials should be configured, including the username, password, protocol, port number, and timeout.
4. The Cisco APIC environment/console URL should be accessible from the server where OpManager is installed.
5. If SNMP monitoring is required for network devices in the ACI, ensure that the SNMP communication UDP port (default 161) configured in the SNMP credentials is accessible from the OpManager server.
6. The ICMP protocol is used for the availability monitoring of APIC and switches. Ensure that ICMP is enabled on the OpManager server.

2. How to add a Cisco ACI in OpManager?

To add your Cisco ACI environment into OpManager,

Cisco ACI monitoring

1. Go to Settings > Discovery > Add Cisco ACI.
2. Enter the IP address or host name of the ACI in the Device Name/IP Address text box.
3. Select the appropriate ACI credential. (Only one ACI credential can be chosen.) To monitor the additional performance metrics select the necessary SNMP and WMI credential.
4. Click on the Add Device option and the your entire Cisco ACI environment will be added to the OpManager inventory.

Click here to know more about discovering devices in OpManager.

3. How does advanced monitoring of endpoints work?

Advanced monitoring of endpoints is a value added feature available for Cisco ACI monitoring in OpManager. Once advanced monitoring is enabled, you will be able to monitor the key performance metrics of your endpoints, i.e, the selected entity (endpoint) will be discovered as a device in OpManager. This allows you to perform all available functionalities such as associating notification profiles and custom creation of device specific reports, while monitoring the in-depth performance of the endpoints.

How do I enable advanced monitoring for endpoints?

1. Once the device (Cisco ACI) is discovered, go to its Device Snapshot page.
2. Go to the 'Endpoint Groups' tab and click on the required Endpoint Group. All endpoints associated with the selected group will be listed.
3. Click on the Start button corresponding to the endpoint selected.
4. OpManager will now enable advanced monitoring for the selected endpoints and will be listed in the Device section under Inventory.

4. How is the health score for ACI, Fabric, and Tenants determined in OpManager?

OpManager uses REST API framework to calculate the various metrics of the associated entities in a Cisco ACI environment, including the health score. This Health Score will be auto updated during periodic data collection of these monitors.

4. Can I schedule rediscovery of ACI? What properties will be updated upon rediscovery of ACI?

As of now, scheduled rediscovery for a Cisco ACI environment is not supported in OpManager. However, general rediscovery can be carried out at any instance. Rediscovering a Cisco ACI will update the basic device information with all its associated properties. Also, all the entities associated with the Cisco ACI, i.e, the endpoint group, fabrics, tenants and the topology map will be refreshed and updated. Any addition or deletion of entities will be reflected precisely both in the topology map as well as in the associated entity counts.

Learn more about device rediscovery in OpManager.