Probes provide a mini-report of the current status of a device. Intermapper retrieves certain data values from the device being tested and displays them in a Status Window. You can also establish thresholds, and have Intermapper send alerts when the collected data value(s) fall outside those thresholds.
Three Important Questions
Before you begin to write an Intermapper probe, think about your equipment and how you want to test it:www
- What data values do you want Intermapper to retrieve? List the operational parameters that Intermapper will monitor and use as the basis for its alarms.
- What limits/thresholds do you want to compare the values to? These are the high/medium/low settings against which Intermapper will compare the retrieved data.
- How do you want to see the information displayed in the device's Status Window? Sketch out (even on paper) the order and placement of the data that is important to you.
Retrieving Device Information
Once you have this information, you've completed the design of the probe. Next, you need to retrieve the desired information from the device.
For SNMP-speaking devices, you'll need to know the SNMP OIDs ("Object IDentifiers") that correspond with the desired data values. The OIDs are defined in a MIB file that you can generally get from the vendor's web site or other MIB repository. (See below for various sources of MIBs.) For SNMP-speaking device, you'll need to know the SNMP OIDs ("Object IDentifiers") that correspond with the desired data values. The OIDs are defined in a MIB file that you can generally get from the vendor's web site or other MIB repository. (See below for various sources of MIBs.)
You will also want a MIB browser program (see below) to make sense of the MIB. This will show the OIDs for the desired values, as well as their definitions and data formats.
Getting Started
Writing Custom SNMP probes for Intermapper is straightforward, and follows this basic process:
- Start by making a probe using the Interactive Probe Builder. This creates a text file that you can save to your hard drive.
- You can then import this file into Intermapper.
- If you wish to make changes to the probe, you can edit the text file and re-import it.
Each time Intermapper polls the device, it retrieves the data values you specified (in the OIDs) and compare those values your thresholds. This determines the status of the device (OK, warning, alarm, or critical state, etc.) Finally, Intermapper format the data in a Status Window as specified in the probe.
Each probe file has "sections" into which you enter the kinds of information listed above.
<snmp-device-variables>section: a place to enter the OIDs that you want to retrieve<snmp-device-thresholds> section: a place to compare the retrieved values to your limits/thresholds<snmp-device-display>section: a place to format the displayed values for the Status Window
Read more about SNMP probe sections in SNMP Probes topic, found in the Intermapper Developer Guide.
After you've filled in these sections of the probe file and saved it, upload it to the Intermapper Settings/Probes folder (be sure to change the file name to something unique) by clicking plus (+) in the Set Probe window, or copy it to the folder and click Reload Probes in the Set Probe window. Select a device, then Set Info... -> Set Probe... to select your new probe.
Once you've imported the probe, you can edit the copy in the InterMapper Settings/Probes folder, save the changes, Reload Probes, and see your changes.
