Monitoring the Dell Switch M-Series
eG Enterprise has developed a dedicated Dell Switch M-Series monitoring model which periodically checks the data traffic to and from each port of the switch, the temperature of each stack unit of the switch, the memory utilization etc, so that abnormalities can be detected and rectified before any irreparable damage occurs.
Figure 1 : The layer model of the Dell Switch M-Series
Every layer of Figure 1 is mapped to a variety of tests which connect to the SNMP MIBs of the target Dell Switch M-Series to collect critical statistics pertaining to its performance. The metrics reported by these tests enable administrators to answer the following questions:
- What is the CPU utilization during the last second?
- What is the CPU utilization during the last minute?
- How well the CPU is utilized during the last 5 minutes?
- What is the current status of the fan available in each stack unit?
- How well the memory of each stack unit is utilized?
- What is the current status of the power supply unit within each stack unit?
- What is the current temperature of each stack unit?
- What is the current status of the switch available in each stack unit?
- How well each port transmits / receives power signals?
- What is the administrative and operational status of each port?
Since the tests of the Network layer have already been discussed in the Monitoring Unix and Windows servers and Monitoring Cisco Routers documents in detail, the sections to come will discuss all other layers of Figure 1 in detail.
