You can change the polling interval for any device by entering a new value in the Poll Interval field in the device model’s Model Information view (be sure to select File > Save All Changes after you enter the new value). or You can also use a Command Line Interface (CLI) script called
update_mtype to change the polling interval either for a specific model or for all models of a specific model type. The script requires you to supply three arguments: the model type name, the polling interval attribute ID (which is 0x10071), and the polling interval value in seconds. To run this script, do the following:
1. Navigate to the following location in your top-level SPECTRUM directory: /vnmsh/sample_scripts
2. Enter the following command:
./update_mtype <model type name> 0x10071 <new polling interval in seconds>
For example, to set the polling interval to 600 seconds for one or more models of type Host_Sun, you would enter:
./update_mtype Host_Sun 0x10071 600.
This will display a list of all models of the specified type, showing for each one the model handle, the model name, the model type handle, and the model type name, as in the following example:
3. To apply the new polling interval to a specific model in the list, enter the model handle (e.g., 0x100001) or the model name (e.g.,
workstation1).
To apply the new polling interval to all models of the specified type, enter the model type handle (e.g., 0x60000) or the model type name (e.g., Host_Sun).
4. The system will indicate success or failure and disconnect you from CLI.
0x100001 workstation1 0x60000 Host_Sun 0x100002 workstation2 0x60000 Host_Sun 0x100003 workstation3 0x60000 Host_Sun
Note: Polling intervals also apply to application models, many of which have an initial setting of zero, which in effect disables polling (although the preferred method for disabling polling for any model is to set the Polling Status attribute to FALSE as explained in Disabling Polling for a Model or a Model Type [page 37]). You can reset the polling interval for application models using the same methods described above for device models. Indeed, it is recommended that you check your inventory report (see Generating an Inventory Report of Your Modeled Devices [page 18]) for application models and run the update_mtype script on each global application model type to set a polling interval of 60 seconds.
Disabling Polling for a Model or a Model Type
In addition to the strategy of increasing default polling intervals for
selected models to conserve bandwidth, you may decide that the status of certain devices is not worth the bandwidth that polling them requires, even at longer intervals. For example, some network administrators may choose not to model endpoint devices such as workstations so that they do not have to deal with the alarms that occur each time these devices are powered down. If you wish to have the endpoints modeled, but do not wish to expend bandwidth with network polling traffic, you can disable polling to these models (or to any models) by changing the value of the Polling Status attribute to FALSE as described below.
How To Change the Polling Status
You can change the polling status for any model by toggling the Polling Status selector button in the model’s Model Information view (be sure to select File > Save All Changes after you change the setting). You can also use the Command Line Interface (CLI) script called update_mtype to change the polling status either for a specific model or for all models of a specific model type. The script requires you to supply three arguments: the model type name, the polling status attribute ID (which is 0x1154f), and the polling status value (TRUE or FALSE). To run this script, do the
following:
1. Navigate to the following location in your top-level SPECTRUM directory: /vnmsh/sample_scripts
2. Enter the following command:
update_mtype <model type name> 0x1154f <new polling status value>
For example, to disable polling for one or more models of type Host_Sun, enter:
update_mtype Host_Sun 0x1154f false.
This will display a list of all models of the specified type, showing for each one the model handle, the model name, the model type handle, and the model type name, as in the following example:
3. To apply the new polling status setting to a specific model in the list, enter the model handle (e.g., 0x100001) or the model name (e.g., workstation1).
To apply the new polling interval to all models of the specified type, enter the model type handle (e.g., 0x60000) or the model type name (e.g., Host_Sun).
4. The system will indicate success or failure and disconnect you from CLI.
Note: The Polling Status value takes precedence over the Polling Interval value in terms of enabling/disabling various periodic external requests to a model. Even though setting the Polling Interval to zero will automatically change the Polling Status to FALSE, if you then reset the Polling Status to TRUE, requests generated by SPECTRUM inference handlers could still occur, regardless of the fact that the Polling Interval is still set to zero. However, to enable normal SPECTRUM polling for fault isolation purposes, the Polling Interval would have to be manually reset to a non-zero value.
Polling Devices that are Down
When contact with a device has been lost, SPECTRUM will continue to poll the device to see if the contact status has changed. By default, SPECTRUM will poll devices that are down once every third polling interval. For
0x100001 workstation1 0x60000 Host_Sun 0x100002 workstation2 0x60000 Host_Sun 0x100003 workstation3 0x60000 Host_Sun
example, if the device’s polling interval is set to 60 seconds, when the device is down, SPECTRUM will poll the device once every 180 seconds.
To change the interval at which SPECTRUM will poll a device that is down, you can insert the following syntax into the <$SPECROOT>/SS/.vnmrc file:
down_device_poll_interval_multiplier=<user_defined_multiplier>
For example, if the <user_defined_multiplier>=2 and the device’s polling interval is 60 seconds, then the down device will be polled once every 120 seconds (2*60=120).