eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by NexusInterfaceTest

This test monitors each network interface of the Cisco Nexus Switch and reports the availability and operation state of each network interface. This test also helps administrators in figuring out how well data was transmitted to and from the network interface and the errors encountered in each network interface while data was transmitted/received. Using this test, administrators can identify the network interface that is handling too much of data traffic and the network interface that is error-prone.

The measures made by this test are as follows:

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
Availability Indicates the availability of this network interface.   If the operational state (i.e., the running state) of an interface is “up”, then, this measure will report the value Yes. If the operational status of an interface is “down”, then this measure will report the value No. On the other hand, if the admin state (i.e., the configured state) of an interface is “down”, then the value of this measure will be: Administratively Down.

The numeric values that correspond to each of the above-mentioned states are as follows:

Measure Value Numeric value
No 0
Yes 100
Administratively Down 200
Dormant 300
Not present 400

Note:

By default, this measure reports one of the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the status of an interface. The graph of this measure however, represents the same using the numeric equivalents – 0 to 300.
Data_xmit_rate Indicates the rate of data being transmitted from the router over a network link. MB/Sec This measurement depicts the workload on a network link.
Data_recvd_rate The rate of data being received by the router over a network link. MB/Sec This measure also characterizes the workload on a network link.
Speed Indicates the speed of this network interface. Mbps Some network interface may dynamically change their speed over time - based on external factors/settings. By tracking the speed of an interface over time, an administrator can be aware of such speed changes.
Pct_bandwidth_used Indicates the percentage utilization of the bandwidth available over a network link. Percent A value close to 100% indicates a network bottleneck.

Note:

The speed of a network interface is based on the value of its SNMP MIB-II variable, which is set using router-specific commands (e.g., the “bandwidth” command of a Cisco router). When a network interface has a fixed maximum speed limit (e.g., Ethernet), the percentage bandwidth will be <= 100%.

In some instances, service providers offer a minimum committed information rate (CIR). In such cases, the speed of the network interface is not fixed and may be set to the minimum CIR. Since user traffic may be in excess of the CIR at times, the percentage bandwidth measure could exceed 100%. In such cases, the percentage bandwidth measure is to be ignored.

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
In_errors Indicates the rate of inbound packets that contained errors preventing them from being delivered to a higher-layer protocol. Packets/Sec Ideally, value of these measures should be 0.
Out_errors Indicates the rate at which outbound packets could not be delivered as they contained errors. Packets/Sec
In_discards Indicates the rate at which inbound packets were discarded, though such packets did not contain any errors that could prevent them from being delivered to a higher-layer protocol. Packets/Sec One possible reason for discarding such a packet could be to free up buffer space.
Out_discards Indicates the rate at which outbound packets were discarded, though such packets did not contain any errors that could prevent them from being delivered to a higher-layer protocol. Packets/Sec One possible reason for discarding such a packet could be to free up buffer space.

If you have a large number of out discards, it means that the network device's output buffers have filled up and the device had to drop these packets. This can be a sign that this segment is run at an inferior speed and/or duplex, or there is too much traffic that goes through this port.
In_N_unicast Indicates the rate at which packets which were addressed as multicast or broadcast were received by this layer. Packets/Sec  
Out_N_unicast Indicates the rate at which packets which were addressed as multicast or broadcast were sent by this layer. Packets/Sec  
In_unicast Indicates the rate at which packets which were not addressed as multicast or broadcast were received by this layer. Packets/Sec  
Out_unicast Indicates the rate at which packets which were not addressed as multicast or broadcast were sent by this layer. Packets/Sec  
Queue_length Indicates the length of the output packet queue. Number A consistent increase in the queue length could be indicative of a network bottleneck.
Unknown_protocols Indicates the rate at which unknown protocols were received. Packets/Sec For packet-oriented interfaces, this measure will report the number of packets received via the interface which were discarded because of an unknown or unsupported protocol. For character-oriented or fixed-length interfaces that support protocol multiplexing, this measure reports the number of transmission units received via the interface which were discarded because of an unknown or unsupported protocol. For any interface that does not support protocol multiplexing, this counter will always be 0.
Down_reason Indicates the current operation state of this network interface.   The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric value
Error Disabled 0
Other 1
None 2
Hwfailure 3
LoopbackDiagFailure 4
SwFailure 6
LinkFailure 7
Offline 8
NonParticipating 9
Initializing 10
VsanInactive 11
AdminDown 12
ChannelAdminDown 13
ChannelOperSuspended 14
ChannelConfigurationInProgress 15
RcfInProgress 16
ElpFailureIsolation 17
EscFailureIsolation 18
DomainOverlapIsolation 19
DomainAddrAssignFailureIsolation 20
DomainOtherSideEportIsolation 21
DomainInvalidRcfReceived 22
DomainManagerDisabled 23
ZoneMergeFailureIsolation 24
VsanMismatchIsolation 25
ParentDown 26
SrcPortNotBound 27
InterfaceRemoved 28
FcotNotPresent 29
FcotVendorNotSupported 30
IncompatibleAdminMode 31
IncompatibleAdminSpeed 32
SuspendedByMode 33
SuspendedBySpeed 34
SuspendedByWWN 35
DomainMaxReTxFailure 36
EppFailure 37
portVsanMismatchIsolation 38
LoopbackIsolation 39
UpgradeInProgress 40
IncompatibleAdminRxBbCredit 41
IncompatibleAdminRxBufferSize 42
PortChannelMembersDown 43
ZoneRemoteNoRespIsolation 44
FirstPortUpAsEport 45
FirstPortNotUp 46
PeerFCIPPortClosedConnection 47
PeerFCIPPortResetConnection 48
FcipPortMaxReTx 49
FcipPortKeepAliveTimerExpire 50
FcipPortPersistTimerExpire 51
FcipPortSrcLinkDown 52
FcipPortSrcAdminDown 53
FcipPortAdminCfgChange 54
FcipSrcPortRemoved 55
FcipSrcModuleNotOnline 56
InvalidConfig 57
PortBindFailure 58
PortFabricBindFailure 59
NoCommonVsanIsolation 60
FiconVsanDown 61
InvalidAttachment 62
PortBlocked 63
IncomAdminRxBbCreditPerBuf 64
TooManyInvalidFlogis 65
DeniedDueToPortBinding 66
ElpFailureRevMismatch 67
ElpFailureClassFParamErr 68
ElpFailureClassNParamErr 69
ElpFailureUnknownFlowCtlCode 70
ElpFailureInvalidFlowCtlParam 71
ElpFailureInvalidPortName 72
ElpFailureInvalidSwitchName 73
ElpFailureRatovEdtovMismatch 74
ElpFailureLoopbackDetected 75
ElpFailureInvalidTxBbCredit 76
ElpFailureInvalidPayloadSize 77
BundleMisCfg 78
BitErrRuntimeThreshExceeded 79
LinkFailLinkReset 80
LinkFailPortInitFail 81
LinkFailPortUnusable 82
LinkFailLossOfSignal 83
LinkFailLossOfSync 84
LinkFailNosRcvd 85
LinkFailOlsRcvd 86
LinkFailDebounceTimeout 87
LinkFailLrRcvd 88
LinkFailCreditLoss 89
LinkFailRxQOverflow 90
LinkFailTooManyInterrupts 91
LinkFailLipRcvdBb 92
LinkFailBbCreditLoss 93
LinkFailOpenPrimSignalTimeout 94
LinkFailOpenPrimSignalReturned 95
LinkFailLipF8Rcvd 96
LinkFailLineCardPortShutdown 97
FcspAuthenfailure 98
FcotChecksumError 99
InvalidFabricBindExchange 100
InvalidFabricBindExchange 101
TovMismatch 102
FiconNotEnabled 103
FiconNoPortNumber 104
FiconBeingEnabled 105
EPortProhibited 106
PortGracefulShutdown 107
TrunkNotFullyActive 108
FabricBindingSwitchWwnNotFound 109
FabricBindingDomainInvalid 110
FabricBindingDbMismatch 111
FabricBindingNoRspFromPeer 112

Note:

By default, this measure reports one of the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the status of an interface. The graph of this measure however, represents the same using the numeric equivalents – 0 to 300.