Selecting the Preferred RMON Agent

If more than one remote monitor (RMON) agent exists on a selected segment, you can choose which agent is to monitor the nodes on the segment from the RMON Agent property page. This page displays a list of servers on which the RMON Agent is installed. The agent installed on the server that you choose from this list becomes the preferred agent. The preferred agent is the primary agent that monitors the segment and sends information about segment activity to Novell ConsoleOne.

To display the RMON Agent property page:

1. Select a segment in Novell ConsoleOne.

2. Click File > Properties > the RMON Agent tab.

The following table describes the statistics displayed in the RMON Agent property page.

Statistic	Explanation
Preferred	Displays a check mark if the selected server is chosen to be the preferred RMON agent server.
Agent Name	Displays a list of all the servers on which the RMON agent is installed.
Version	Displays the version of the RMON agent installed on the server. The version is dynamically obtained. If Novell ZENworks Server Management cannot connect to the remote agent, or if a third-party agent is installed on the selected segment, this field is blank.
Status	Displays the status of the RMON agent on the segment.
MAC Address	Displays the physical Media Access Control (MAC) address of the node.
Interface Index	Displays the number of interface indexes in which each interface corresponds to a segment that the node can connect through the network board.
Available RMON Services	Displays the list of RMON services available from the selected agent: RMON, RMON Plus, or RMON2.

To choose an RMON agent as the preferred agent:

1. Choose a server or workstation name from the list of names displayed in the property page.

   The server and workstation names displayed are those on which the RMON agent is installed.

2. Click Apply.

Setting Up SNMP Parameters

When you request dynamic information to be displayed in Novell ConsoleOne, it seeks the information from the management server. The management server communicates with the network monitoring agent using SNMP, obtains the required information from the agent, and provides it to Novell ConsoleOne. SNMP communications between the server and the agent are based on default SNMP settings provided by Novell ZENworks Server Management. You can change the default SNMP settings using the SNMP dialog box, which displays in Novell ConsoleOne if an error occurs when the management server is communicating with the monitoring agent.

You can use the SNMP dialog box to specify the community strings and security settings for SNMP communication. You can change the default time-out value for the server to connect with the agent. If the default time-out value is exceeded before the server can communicate with the agent or if the community string of the server does not match that of the agent, the SNMP dialog box displays in Novell ConsoleOne with the current settings. You can use the dialog box to change the current time-out value, the community string, and other SNMP parameters. The changed values are saved in the Novell ZENworks Server Management database and will be applied for all subsequent traffic management sessions.

To change the SNMP settings for all monitoring agents in your network:

1. In Novell ConsoleOne, right-click the Novell ZENworks Server Management domain, then click Global SNMP Parameters.

To change the SNMP settings for a specific agent:

1. In Novell ConsoleOne, right-click the node on which the agent is installed, then click Properties > SNMP Settings.

The following table describes the SNMP parameters displayed in the SNMP Settings property page.

Parameter	Explanation
Community String	Community string of the node requesting dynamic data from the agent
Timeout	Maximum duration the server should wait for a response from the agent
Retry	Number of times the server should try to connect with the agent
Secure Set	Encrypts the packet sent by the management server to the monitoring agent
Secure Get	Encrypts the packet sent by the monitoring agent to the management server

HINT:  If the network monitoring agent is running on NetWare 4.x and your network is IPX enabled, use the SNMP dialog box to communicate with the agent using IPX. This will significantly improve the performance of Novell ZENworks Server Management traffic analysis components.