iMonitor User Guide

iDS Release 8.3

A component of iVantage NMS

August 29, 2008

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Copyright © 2008 VT iDirect, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is
prohibited. Information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The specifications and information
regarding the products in this document are subject to change without notice. All statements, information, and
recommendations in this document are believed to be accurate, but are presented without warranty of any kind,
express, or implied. Users must take full responsibility for their application of any products. Trademarks, brand
names and products mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. All such references
are used strictly in an editorial fashion with no intent to convey any affiliation with the name or the product's
rightful owner.

Document Name: UG_iMonitor User Guide iDS 8.3_082908.pdf

Document Part Number: T0000150

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Contents
Figures ix
Tables x

The iVantage Network Management System xi

1 Using this Guide 1

1.1 Intended Audience 1
1.2 Document Conventions 1
1.2.1 Typographical and Navigational Conventions 1
1.2.2 Informational Conventions 2

2 Overview of the NMS for iMonitor 3

2.1 Introduction 3
2.2 Components of the Network Management System 3
2.2.1 NMS Applications 3
iBuilder 3
iMonitor 4
iSite 4
2.2.2 Server Components 5
Configuration Server 5
Real-time Data Server 5
Event Server 5
Latency Server 5
NMS Controller Server 5
PP Controller Servers 5
NMS Monitor Script 5
Consolidation Script 5
Database Backup Script 5
Database Restore Script 6
2.3 Installing iBuilder, iMonitor, and iSite 6
2.3.1 System Requirements 6
2.3.2 Installation Procedure 6
2.4 Installing the Geographic Map 7
2.4.1 Components of the Geographic Map 7
2.4.2 Installing the License File on the NMS Server 8
2.4.3 Installing the Client Software and Map Data on Your PC 8
2.5 Launching iMonitor 9
Logging On To Additional Servers 10
Multiple Users or PCs Accessing the NMS 10

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 Accepting Changes 10
2.6 Overview of iMonitor Usage and Displays 11
2.6.1 iMonitor Time Frames in Requests 11
2.6.2 Saving Historical Time Ranges across Multiple Displays 11
2.6.3 Historical “Save to File” Capability 12
2.6.4 Types of iMonitor Displays 12
2.6.5 Multicolumn Details Displays 12
2.6.6 Multiple vs. Grouped Display Results 13
2.7 Using iMonitor’s Interface 14
2.7.1 Clicking on Elements: What Happens? 14
Right-Clicking 14
Single-Clicking vs. Double-Clicking 14
2.7.2 Globe Functions 15
Using the Docking Feature 15
Hiding Elements 15
Expanding Tree 15
Collapsing Tree 16
Sorting Columns 16
Sorting the Tree 17
2.7.3 Network Tree 19
2.7.4 Using the Interface Toolbars and Menu Options 19
Title Bar 19
Menu Bar 20
Toolbar 20
Audio Notification 20
Acknowledging Conditions 22
View Menu 22
Find Toolbar 23
Workspace Toolbar 25
Saving and Reloading Workspaces 25
Operational Toolbar 26
Status Bar 27
Connection Details on Status Bar Icon 27
Conditions Pane 27
Legend Pane 28
Configuration Changes Pane 29
Viewing Real-Time Status 29
2.7.5 Selecting Columns for Viewing 30
2.7.6 Monitoring iSCPC Links 31

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3 Monitoring Conditions and Events 33
3.1 Conditions 33
3.1.1 Representing State of Element via Icons 33
3.1.2 Conditions Pane 34
3.1.3 Elements with Multiple Conditions 35
3.1.4 Offline State 36
3.1.5 Alarms and Warnings on Elements 36
3.2 Putting an Element under Observation for Conditions 39
3.2.1 Viewing Conditions or Events 42
Viewing Conditions 42
Viewing Events 42
3.2.2 Interpreting Conditions Results 48
3.3 Interpreting System Events 50
3.4 Snapshots 50
3.4.1 Network Condition Snapshot 50
Multiple Selection Options in Condition Snapshot View 54
3.4.2 Network Data Snapshot 56

4 Obtaining Performance and Status Information 59

4.1 Monitoring Blades in iMonitor 59
4.2 Using the Remote Probe 61
Modifying the Timeout Duration for a CW or PN Carrier 65
4.3 CPU Usage (Blades Only) 66
4.4 Timeplan 68
Pausing the Timeplan Graph and Highlighting Individual Entries 71
4.5 Inroute Distribution 71
Networks 72
Inroute Groups 73
Performing ACQ Bounce 73
4.6 Latency 74
4.7 Retrieving Information on Remotes using Probe Mesh 77
4.8 Satellite Link Information 79
4.8.1 Line Card Statistics 79
Identifying Remotes Causing Rx CRC Errors on iNFINITI Line Cards 82
4.8.2 SATCOM Graph 82
Remote Status and UCP Info 82
Display 83
Procedure for Viewing SATCOM Graph, Remote Status and UCP Info 83
Mesh UCP Tab 86
Selecting Parameters in the Mesh UCP Tab 87
Mesh UCP Parameter Definitions 88

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 Remote Status and UCP Info Tabs 88
4.8.3 Group QoS Statistics 90
Viewing QoS Statistics 90
Saving QoS Statistics to an Excel Spreadsheet or to a CSV Formatted File 95
4.8.4 Control Panel 96
4.9 Connecting to Network Elements 98
Examining IP Routing and HDLC Information on Remotes 98
4.10 Monitoring Your Bandwidth with SkyMonitor 100
4.10.1 Viewing the Spectrum with SkyMonitor 100
4.10.2 Changing the SkyMonitor Settings 103
4.10.3 Capturing and Recalling SkyMonitor Data 104
Saving SkyMonitor Data 104
Recalling and Viewing SkyMonitor Data 105
Capturing an Image of the SkyMonitor Display 107

5 IP, SAT and Mesh Traffic Graphs 109

5.1 IP Statistics 109
5.2 SAT Statistics 109
5.3 IP Statistics vs. SAT Statistics 109
5.4 SAT Traffic Graph 111
5.5 IP Traffic Graph 114
5.6 Viewing Options 117
5.7 Bandwidth Usage 118
5.8 Mesh Statistics 120
5.8.1 Mesh Traffic Graph 121

6 Reporting on Networks 127

6.1 Reports 127
6.1.1 Long-Term Bandwidth Usage Report 127
6.1.2 IP, SAT and Mesh Long Term Bandwidth Usage Reports 127
Results 130
Totals Tab 130
Averages Tab 130
6.1.2.1 Interpreting the Report 132
Percentage of Channel Capacity 132
6.2 Remote and Line Card Availability Reports 133

7 Monitoring Remotes Using the Geographic Map 135

7.1 Launching the Geographic Map 135
7.2 The Map Toolbar 137
7.3 Tracking and Locating Mobile Remotes 140
Enabling Remote Tracking and Clearing Remote Tracks 141

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 Determining a Remote’s Current Location and State 141
Determining a Remote’s Past Locations at Specific Times 141
7.4 Using the Map to Select from the Network Tree Menu 142
Selecting from the Remote Submenu for a Single Remote 142
Selecting from the Remote Submenu for Multiple Remotes 143
7.5 Geographic Map Filtering Based on Remote Status 144
Applying Filters Using the Geographic Map Toolbar 145
Applying Filters Using the Filter Menu 145

Appendix A Accessing the NMS Statistics Archive 147

A.1 Optimization of the Statistics Archive 147
A.1.1 Optimized NMS Statistics Archive Storage 147
A.1.2 Optimized NMS Statistics Archive Lookup 147
A.1.3 Archive Consolidation 148
A.2 NMS Database Overview 148
Connecting to the NMS Archive Database with ODBC 148
Obtaining the ODBC Connection Library 148
Setting up a Simple ODBC Access Account 148
A.3 Basic Archive Database Information 149
Types of NMS Databases and Supported Access 149
Structure Changes between Releases 149
Accessing Remote and Network Names from Configuration Database 150
Timestamps 150
Overview of the Archive Database Tables 150
A.4 Database Table Details 151
A.4.1 IP Stats Tables 152
Consolidated IP Stats Tables 153
Statistics Consolidation Process 154
A.4.2 Latency Measurements 154
A.4.3 Hub Line Card Statistics 155
A.4.4 Remote Status 156
A.4.5 Uplink Control Adjustments 157
A.4.6 Event Messages 158
A.4.7 Hub and Remote State Changes 159
A.4.8 Protocol Processor State Changes 161
A.4.9 Hub Chassis State Changes 162
A.4.10 Over-the-Air Statistics Tables 163
Consolidated Over-the-Air Statistics Tables 164
A.4.11 Over-the-Air Multicast Statistics Tables 165
Consolidated Over-the-Air Statistics Tables 165

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 A.4.12 Mesh Stats Tables 166
Consolidated Mesh Tables 166
A.5 NMS Statistics Archive Database Restructuring 167
A.5.1 Background 167
A.5.2 The New Archive Database Structure 168
A.5.3 The New Archive Process 169
A.5.4 Table Division Rules 170
A.5.5 Table Selection Process 171
A.5.6 Converting Data between Table Formats 172
After the Upgrade to Release 6.1 172
Changing the 6.1 Table Structure 173
A.5.7 Optimizing Archive Database Performance 174
Copying the Archive Database Partitioning Calculator to Your PC 174
Using the Archive Database Partitioning Calculator 175
A.5.8 Selecting from the Restructured Database 180
Identifying the Location of the Result Set 180
Ignoring the Location of the Result Set Part One: 181
Ignoring the Location of the Result Set Part Two: 182

Appendix B Alarms and Warnings 185

B.1 Alarms 185
B.2 Warnings 186
B.3 Acronyms 189
B.4 Default Warning Limit Thresholds 189

Appendix C SNMP Proxy Agent 191

C.1 How the Proxy Agent Works 191
C.2 The iDirect Management Information Base (MIB) 192
C.2.1 Resetting Statistical Data 195
C.2.2 iDirect MIB SNMP Traps 197
C.2.3 Setting up SNMP Traps 198
C.3 Working with HP OpenView 200
C.3.1 Linux SNMP Tools 200

Appendix D Rx CRC Error Correlation 203

Index 207

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Figures
Figure 2-1: Desktop Shortcuts for NMS GUI Clients 6
Figure 2-2: Windows Start Menu Entries for NMS GUI Clients 7
Figure 2-3: iMonitor Main Window 14
Figure 2-4: Expand Tree Selection 16
Figure 2-5: Expanded Tree with Child Elements 16
Figure 2-6: Collapse Tree Selection 16
Figure 2-7: Collapsed Tree 16
Figure 2-8: The Workspace Toolbar in Action 25
Figure 3-1: Conditions Time Range 44
Figure 3-2: Events Time Range with Text Filter 45
Figure 3-3: Conditions Results in Multicolumn Format 46
Figure 3-4: Conditions Time Line Results in Graphical Format 46
Figure 3-5: Event Results 48
Figure 3-6: List and Details View of Network Condition Snapshot 51
Figure 3-7: Remote Submenu in Condition Snapshot 52
Figure 4-1: Mesh UCP Graph 86
Figure 4-2: Remote Status Raw Data 89
Figure 4-3: UCP Info Raw Data 89
Figure 4-4: SkyMonitor Initial View 101
Figure 4-5: Monitoring a Carrier with SkyMonitor 102
Figure 4-6: SkyMonitor Function Buttons 103
Figure 5-1: Collection Points for IP Usage Statistics 110
Figure 5-2: Real-Time Bandwidth Usage Display 119
Figure 5-3: Collection Points for Mesh, SAT, and IP Statistics 121
Figure 6-1: SAT Long Term Bandwidth Usage Report 131
Figure 6-2: IP Long Term Bandwidth Usage Report 132
Figure A-1: Default Table Set 168
Figure A-2: Release 6.0 and Earlier Stats Archiving Process 169
Figure A-3: Release 6.1 Stats Archiving Process 169
Figure A-4: Archive Database after Conversion to 6.1 172
Figure A-5: Retrieving the Database Partitioning Calculator Using Cygwin 175
Figure A-6: Archive Database Partitioning Calculator 177
Figure A-7: Segmented nms_remote_status archive tables 179
Figure C-1: SNMP Proxy Architecture 191

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Tables
Table 2-1: Toolbar Icons and Functions 20
Table 2-2: Operational Toolbar Icons and Functions 26
Table 2-3: Star Network vs. iSCPC Link Monitoring 31
Table 3-1: Elements and Types of Information Provided 33
Table 3-2: Real-Time States and Icons 33
Table 3-3: Explanation of Alarms by Element 36
Table 3-4: Explanation of Warnings by Element 37
Table 7-1: Geographic Map Toolbar Icons and Functions 138
Table A-1: Archive Database Tables 151
Table A-2: IP Stats Record Format 152
Table A-3: Additional Consolidated IP Stats Table Fields 153
Table A-4: lat_stats Record Format 154
Table A-5: nms_hub_stats Table Format 155
Table A-6: nms_remote_status Record Format 156
Table A-7: nms_ucp_info Record Format 157
Table A-8: event_msg Record Format 158
Table A-9: state_change_log Record Format 159
Table A-10: pp_state_change_log Record Format 162
Table A-11: chassis_state_change_log Record Format 163
Table A-12: OTA Stats Record Format 163
Table A-13: Additional Consolidated OTA Stats Table Fields 164
Table A-14: OTACAST Stats Record Format 165
Table A-15: Additional Consolidated OTACAST Stats Table Fields 165
Table A-16: Mesh Stats Record Format 166
Table A-17: Additional Consolidated Mesh Stats Table Fields 167
Table A-18: Default Data Striping 168
Table A-19: TABLE_INFO Format and Default Contents 170
Table B-1: Alarms 185
Table B-2: Warnings 187
Table B-3: Warning Limit Thresholds 189
Table C-1: iDirect MIB Contents 192
Table C-2: iDirect MIB Statistical Information 193
Table C-3: iDIRECT MIB Traps 197
Table C-4: SNMP Command Line Utilities 200

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The iVantage Network Management System

iMonitor is a component of the iDirect iVantage Network Management System (NMS). The
iVantage NMS is a complete suite of tools for configuring, monitoring, and controlling your iDirect
satellite network.

The iVantage NMS consists of the following components:

• iBuilder enables rapid, intuitive configuration of any iDirect network. It allows you to
easily add components to your network, change your current configuration, and
download configuration and software to network elements. The iBuilder Revision
Server provides automated management of software and firmware upgrades for your
remote modems. The iBuilder Group QoS (GQoS) user interface allows advanced
network operators a high degree of flexibility in creating subnetworks and groups of
remotes with various levels of service tailored to their network requirements. The
iBuilder User Guide provides detailed instructions for using iBuilder to configure and
manage your network.
• iMonitor provides network operators with detailed information on real-time and
historical performance of the network. Among its many capabilities, iMonitor allows you
to analyze bandwidth usage; view remote status; view network statistics; monitor
performance of networks, sub-networks and individual network elements; and manage
alarms, warnings and network events. Alarms, warnings and statistics can be
forwarded as SNMP traps. All events and performance statistics are automatically
archived. Data displayed on the iMonitor GUI can be exported directly into Excel for
further analysis. A Network Probe allows detailed investigation of network issues. The
iMonitor User Guide provides instructions for using iMonitor.
• iSite allows you to monitor and configure iDirect devices in the field. It includes several
features that aid in the remote commissioning process, including assistance for
antenna pointing, antenna look angle calculation, and cross polarization. You can also
use iSite to configure and manage point-to-point SCPC connections between
dedicated remotes. An iSite API is available for custom development. For further
information on these topics, see the Installation and Commissioning Guide for iNFINITI
remotes and the iSCPC User Guide.
• The Geographic Map is an optional iMonitor feature that displays in real time the exact
geographic location of all remotes within a given network on a world map. Functions
include mobile remote tracking; the ability to zoom, pan in or out, and add or remove
map features from the display; and filtering of remotes filter remotes by active state.
The Geographic Map is described in detail in the iMonitor User Guide.
• SkyMonitor allows you to integrate one or more multi-port spectrum analyzers into
your hub installation and then use iMonitor to view your iDirect carriers or other areas
of the spectrum. SkyMonitor can be an invaluable tool for diagnosing performance
issues from RF interference or other carrier-related anomalies. Network Operators can
view, analyze, store and recall the spectral displays of any carrier from anywhere an
iMonitor connection is supported. Configuration of SkyMonitor is described in the
iBuilder User Guide. The use of SkyMonitor for spectrum analysis is described in the
iMonitor User Guide.

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• The Web Services Tool Kit (WST) provides a software interface along with
engineering services that support iVantage integration with external systems. For
example, you can integrate iVantage with external web applications or OSS/BSS
systems such as billing, provisioning, reporting or customer access systems.
Integrating the power of iVantage with other business tools allows Network Operators
to generate revenue through new service offerings such as usage-based billing. WST
also enables Network Operators to integrate iVantage with their service ordering and
provisioning systems, greatly simplifying the process of adding new customers and
sites. The use of the toolkit is described in the Web Services Toolkit User’s Guide.
• A Virtual Network Operator (VNO) license enables network operators to view and
manage only their own networks and remotes, independent of other operators
delivering services out of the same hub. The VNO package makes it possible to scale
investments to actual business growth, significantly reducing initial capital equipment
expenses. Configuring VNOs is described in the iBuilder User Guide.
• A Customer Network Observer (CNO) license grants filtered read-only iMonitor
access, allowing customers real-time and historical views into their own network
performance while maintaining overall network privacy. Configuring CNOs is described
in the iBuilder User Guide.

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1 Using this Guide

This section discusses the purpose of this manual, its intended audience, and the document
conventions used.

1.1 Intended Audience

This user guide is intended for all network operators using the iDirect iDS system, as well as
network architects and any other personnel who may operate or monitor the networks from time
to time. It is not intended for end users or field installers.

Some basic knowledge of TCP/IP concepts, satellite communications, and Windows operating
systems is expected. Prior experience operating an iDS network, although desirable, is not a
requirement.

1.2 Document Conventions

This section illustrates and describes the conventions used throughout the manual. Take a look
now, before you begin using this manual, so that you’ll know how to interpret the information
presented.

1.2.1 Typographical and Navigational Conventions

• Information you type directly into data fields or at command prompts is in courier
font.
• Windows menu selections are represented as Menu J Command, or in the case of
cascading menus, Menu J SubMenu J Command.
• Menu selections made from items in the Tree View are represented as <level in tree>
J Command. For example, the Tree menu item to modify a line card is shown as Line
Card J Modify.
• Names of commands, menus, folders, tabs, dialog boxes, list boxes, and options are
in bold font.
• Procedures begin with a feature description, followed by step-by-step, numbered
instructions.

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1.2.2 Informational Conventions

When you see the NOTE symbol, the corresponding text contains
NOTE helpful suggestions or references to material not contained in this
manual.

When you see this alert symbol with a WARNING or CAUTION

WARNING heading, strictly follow the warning instructions to avoid personal
injury, equipment damage or loss of data.

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2 Overview of the NMS for iMonitor

iDirect’s Network Management System (the iVantage NMS) is a powerful suite of applications and
servers that provide complete control and visibility to all components of your iDirect networks. The
NMS client/server system architecture consists of three series of components:

• Three NMS applications with Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) that allow you to
configure and monitor your network
• A database that stores the data entered by and displayed to users
• A middleware tier that manages access to the database on behalf of user operations
For a description of all iVantage NMS components see the “The iVantage Network Management
System” on page xi.

2.1 Introduction
This chapter provides some of the most important information you will need to understand how
iMonitor works and how to use it as effectively as possible. This chapter discusses how to prepare
for installation, what you will see when you first launch iMonitor, how to use the many powerful
tools available in iMonitor, how to create, customize, and print reports, and how to determine the
configuration status of network elements.

iMonitor provides complete visibility to real-time status and operational characteristics of network
elements.

• Status refers to the real-time state of network elements (such as OK, Warning, Alarm).
iMonitor notifies you asynchronously of warnings and alarms for all network elements,
which are collectively called conditions.
• Operational characteristics are captured in a variety of network statistical data, such
as IP traffic statistics, satellite link quality, and hardware component operating values.
You can also obtain and view data stored in the historical archive, which allows you to analyze
anomaly conditions and perform trend analysis.

2.2 Components of the Network Management System

The NMS consists of several client/server components that work together to provide the functions
and views necessary to control your network. These components are briefly discussed below.

2.2.1 NMS Applications

The iDirect NMS provides three GUI clients, each of which performs specific functions for
networks operators, field installers, and end users.

iBuilder
The iBuilder application provides all configuration and control functions to network operators.
Configuration options consist of creating network elements (e.g. networks, line cards, remotes)

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and specifying their operational parameters, such as QoS profiles or IP addresses. Control
options consist of applying the specified configurations to the actual network elements, retrieving
active configurations, resetting elements, and upgrading element software and firmware. Refer to
Network Management System iBuilder User Guide for more information.

iMonitor
The iMonitor application provides complete visibility to the real-time status and operational data of
network elements. “Status” refers to the real-time state of network elements, such as OK, warning,
or alarm. Operational data are captured in a variety of network statistical data tables and displays,
revealing, for example, IP traffic statistics, satellite link quality, and hardware component operating
values.

In addition to real-time visibility, iMonitor allows you to access state and statistics from the
historical archive in order to analyze anomaly conditions and perform trend analyses. This guide
has a complete list of real-time and historical data available through iMonitor.

iSite
The iSite application is used primarily for commissioning new sites and monitoring TDMA remotes
from the local LAN side. It contains functions to help installers calculate antenna azimuth/
elevation, perform antenna pointing, and put up a continuous wave (CW) carrier for antenna
peaking, cross-polarization and 1 db compression tests. It also provides configuration and real-
time state/statistical information for one or more remote units. Instead of interacting with the NMS
middleware, it connects directly to each remote to perform all of its operations. iSite does not
provide access to historical information. See the Remote Installation and Commissioning Guide
for more on commissioning iNFINITI remotes using iSite.

In addition to its commissioning functions, iSite can be used to configure and monitor remote-to-
remote SCPC connections. It also allows monitor-only capability to end-users, should you decide
to provide it to them.

End-users do not need iSite in order to receive or transmit IP data

NOTE over the iDS system.

NOTE Beginning with release 5.0.0, iSite replaces NetManager.

For more information about NMS applications, see “The iVantage Network Management System”
on page xi.

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2.2.2 Server Components
The NMS server processes run on your NMS Linux Server machines. There are a number of NMS
servers processes, each of which performs a specific set of back-end functions.

Configuration Server
The configuration server is the core component of the NMS server family. It manages access to
the configuration database, which contains all the element definitions for your networks and their
operational parameters. Additionally, the configuration server provides most network control
functions (configuration apply, firmware download, resetting, etc.). The other servers also use this
server to determine what the network components are.

Real-time Data Server

The real-time data server collects most of the network statistics produced by your network
elements. These statistics include IP stats for each remote, remote status messages, timeplan slot
assignments, line card statistics, etc. Additionally, the real-time data server provides these
statistics to the GUI clients for real-time and historical display.

Event Server
The event server’s primary job is to generate warnings and alarms and send them to iMonitor for
display. Warnings and alarms are collectively known as “conditions”. The event server also
collects and archives all system events and provides them to iMonitor for display.

Latency Server
The latency server measures round-trip time, or latency, for every active remote in your networks.
These measurements are stored in the archive and provided to iMonitor for display.

NMS Controller Server

The control server manages the PP Controller Server processes running on the NMS server.

PP Controller Servers
The PP Controller processes control the samnc process on each PP blade.

NMS Monitor Script

This simple script monitors all other servers and restarts them automatically if they terminate
abnormally. It records a log file of its activities and can be configured to send e-mail to designated
recipients when it restarts any of the other servers.

Consolidation Script
The consolidation process periodically consolidates records in the statistics archive to preserve
disk space on the server machine. Default consolidation parameters are already entered into your
configuration database; they can be tuned to your particular storage requirements if necessary.

Database Backup Script

This script runs nightly to back up the data in your primary databases and copy it to your backup
NMS server. The database backup script must be custom-configured for each customer site.
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Database Restore Script
This script runs nightly on your backup NMS server. It restores your primary NMS database into
the backup database for NMS failover purposes.

2.3 Installing iBuilder, iMonitor, and iSite

This section provides the system requirements and procedures for installing your Network
Management System components.

2.3.1 System Requirements

The NMS GUI clients are Windows PC-based applications that run under the following versions
of Windows:

• Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or later

• Windows XP
Windows NT, Windows 98 and Windows 95 are NOT supported. We do NOT support server-
based versions of Windows.

2.3.2 Installation Procedure

A single client installer .exe file, nms_clients_setup.exe, installs all three GUI clients and
associated library files for you.

To install, copy the .exe file to the target PC, double-click it, and follow the prompts.

By default, the clients are installed in the directory C:\Program Files\iDIRECT. The installer
automatically places a shortcut to each GUI application on your desktop and adds the appropriate
entries in the Windows Start menu. Click Start J All Programs J iDirect J NMS Clients 7.1. The
iBuilder, iMonitor, and iSite clients are displayed, along with an Uninstall selection.

Figure 2-1: Desktop Shortcuts for NMS GUI Clients

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 Figure 2-2: Windows Start Menu Entries for NMS GUI Clients

2.4 Installing the Geographic Map

iMonitor’s Geographic Map feature allows you to monitor the locations and status of your remotes
in real time. Before you can use this feature, you must install your Geographic Map license on the
NMS server and the map data on your client PCs.

The Geographic Map is a licensed feature. Please contact your

NOTE iDirect sales representative for pricing and ordering information.

To support this feature, your client PC or laptop should meet the following requirements:

• 1.6 gigahertz (GHz) Pentium processor or higher

• Microsoft Windows XP, Service Pack 2
• 512 megabytes (MB) of RAM or more
• At least 1 gigabyte (GB) of free disk space

2.4.1 Components of the Geographic Map

The Geographic Map feature has the following primary components:

• The map license file resides on the NMS server and allows or denies access to the
map. When you purchase the Geographic Map feature, you will receive your license
file from the iDirect Technical Assistance Center (TAC).
• The mapx_setup.exe file is the executable file that installs the MapX client software on
your PC. It is a simple and quick InstallShield application that prepares your PC to run
the Geographic Map software.
• The map data files, which are installed on your PC, supply the actual data for the map:
names, roads, bodies of water, cities, and other map features. The map data is shipped
to you on a read-only CD, and is quite large (approximately 1.13 GB uncompressed,
540 MB compressed).
• The README file contains instructions for installing the map software on your PC.

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2.4.2 Installing the License File on the NMS Server
Once you have received your map license file from the iDirect TAC, you must copy it to the
following location on both your primary and backup NMS servers:

/home/nms/cfg/nmssvr_e.lic

Do not change the name of the map license file. The license file
NOTE name must be nmssver_e.lic for the Geographic Map software to
operate.

It is not necessary to restart any of the NMS servers; the new license will be enabled immediately.

2.4.3 Installing the Client Software and Map Data on Your PC

Once you have purchased the Geographic Mapping license, you must install the client software
and the map data on each PC that will use the map. There is no limit to the number of PCs that
can run the map client software when connected to an NMS server with a valid license.

To install the client software and map data on your PC:

Step 1 Close any programs currently running on your PC.

Step 2 Insert the distribution CD into the CD-ROM drive on your PC. The CD
contains the following files:

• README.txt
• mapx_setup.exe
• WorldPlaces.zip
Step 3 Copy the above files to your PC and perform the remaining steps from your
PC.

Step 4 Double-click the mapx_setup.exe command and follow the instructions to

install the software on your PC.

Step 5 Verify that the folder C:\Program Files\MapInfo\MapX 8.3\Maps contains only
the following two files: GeoDict.DCT and World4NMS.gst.

Step 6 From the folder C:\Program Files\MapInfo\MapX 8.3, execute the following
commands:
RegTypLib.exe mdatasetint.tlb
regsvr32 MAPX50.dll
Step 7 Using WinZIP or another zip file utility, open the WorldPlaces.zip file and
extract its contents to the following folder on your PC:

C:\Program Files\MapInfo\MapX 8.3\Maps

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For instructions on using the Geographic Map to monitor your remotes, see Section 7 “Monitoring
Remotes Using the Geographic Map” on page 135.

2.5 Launching iMonitor

iMonitor is initially installed with two default accounts: “admin” and “guest”. The admin user has
full access privileges to all iMonitor functionality, while the guest account has read-only access.
The passwords for these two accounts are identical to their associated user names. For
information on setting up user accounts, see the chapter titled “Creating and Managing User
Accounts and User Groups” in Network Management System iBuilder User Guide.

iDirect strongly recommends that you modify the admin user password as soon as possible after
the installation. This is especially important if your NMS Server is accessible via the public
Internet.

Step 1 To launch iMonitor, double-click the desktop shortcut or select it from the
Windows Start menu.

Step 2 Enter your user name and password in the Login Information dialog box.

Step 3 Click Server and select the IP address or host name of your primary NMS
Server machine. The Server box holds up to three IP addresses. If yours
does not exist, enter the IP Address in the Server box.

Step 4 Click OK to complete the login process.

The NMS server version must match the iMonitor version in order
NOTE for you to log in. For example, version 6.0.0 of iMonitor may
connect only to version 6.0.0 of the NMS servers.

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The iMonitor application automatically connects to the NMS server processes that are required to
perform the NMS functions. If this connection is lost for any reason, iMonitor automatically
reconnects to the servers when they become available.

Logging On To Additional Servers

In the event that there are multiple NMS servers in the same teleport or multiple teleports under
the network operator’s control, you may need to log out of one NMS server and log in to another
one. You can do this without exiting iMonitor. From the Main Menu, select File J Log Off to log
out of your current session and File J Log On to open the Login Information dialog box again.

Multiple Users or PCs Accessing the NMS

Multiple users or multiple sessions may run simultaneously on the NMS database. For example,
the NMS offers the following capabilities:

1. You may run multiple simultaneous sessions of iMonitor on a single PC. These
versions may be connected to different servers or the same server.

2. Multiple PCs may run the same session of iMonitor at any given time and connect to
the same server at the same time.

Accepting Changes
When two iBuilder users are connected to the same server, and one of them modifies the network
configuration, the other user cannot modify the configuration suite until he accepts the changes,
which will automatically refresh his configuration view to reflect the latest changes.

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When another user changes the configuration, or when you make a change that affects other
network elements, the Accept Changes button on your toolbar changes color from gray to red. (For
more information, see Table 2-1, “Toolbar Icons and Functions,” on page 20.)

Before you accept the changes, you may view the other user’s changes by selecting View J
Configuration Changes (see Section “Configuration Changes Pane” on page 29). To accept the
changes and update your view of iMonitor, click Accept Changes. Any modifications the other user
has made are now displayed in your copy of iMonitor.

2.6 Overview of iMonitor Usage and Displays

2.6.1 iMonitor Time Frames in Requests

iMonitor provides three basic time periods for requesting data: real-time, historical, and Get Past.

• Real-time requests display data as it arrives into the NMS back-end in real-time.
These requests have no ending time period—they continue displaying data as long as
you keep the display running. Closing either the specific display or the iMonitor
application automatically cancels real-time requests.
• Historical requests retrieve data purely from the historical archive based on the start
and end times you specify. These requests are active in the back-end only until the
data is completely delivered to iMonitor.
• Get Past requests represent a hybrid of real-time and historical: when you request Get
Past data, iMonitor retrieves the most recent data from the archive, and then continues
to give you real-time data until you cancel the request.

2.6.2 Saving Historical Time Ranges across Multiple Displays

Occasionally you are faced with a situation that requires you to launch multiple different displays
for the same time range. iMonitor makes this task much simpler by allowing you to save a specified
time range and re-use it in as many displays as necessary. You may save purely historical time
ranges and Get Past ranges independently.

To save a specified time range, use the following procedure:

1. Launch the first display and specify the time range for the time period you are
investigating. Notice the pushpin located next to the Time Range button (or the Get Past
drop-down list for Get Past requests).

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 2. Next, press the pushpin located next to the Time Range button (or the Get Past drop-
down list for Get Past requests). The pushpin will change to appear undepressed.

3. All future requests will automatically use the time range you just saved, until you “take
down” the time range by clicking on the pushpin again.

2.6.3 Historical “Save to File” Capability

You may specify a disk file name for iMonitor to save historical or real-time results into. This
feature is useful if you have requested a large amount of data for a large number of remotes. You
may specify a file name in the following parameters dialogs:

• Latency
• Line card statistics
• Events
• Conditions
• Remote Status/UCP

2.6.4 Types of iMonitor Displays

The two data display types used in iMonitor are graphical displays and multicolumn lists. Events
are shown only in multicolumn lists. Network statistical data and conditions may be displayed in
both graphical format and/or multicolumn lists, depending on the type of data you are viewing.

• Graphical displays represent data in graphical charts.

• Multicolumn lists represent data arranged in tabular format with rows and columns.

2.6.5 Multicolumn Details Displays

All of iMonitor’s multicolumn lists share certain characteristics in common. Among them are:

• Data in multicolumn lists can be sorted in ascending or descending order by clicking

on the column heading containing the data you want to sort by.
• The default sort order is normally “ascending by time stamp.”
• All scrollbars function identically:

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 • If the slider is at the bottom of the pane, the pane scrolls to continually show you
new data as it’s added to the display.
• If the slider is positioned somewhere other than the bottom of the display, data
continues to be added at the bottom, but the display position remains constant at
the current point. This is based on the assumption that you’re viewing data in the
middle of the display and you don’t want the pane scrolling away from that data.
• Multiple rows of data may be selected and copied/pasted into another application such
as Excel for offline viewing and analysis.
• Multicolumn lists may be printed to any printer you have configured on your PC. Select
FileJPrint to print the contents of a list.
• By using your mouse button inside the multicolumn list, you may select either the
Expand All or Fit to Window options. These options work as follows:
• Expand All resizes each column to be the width of either the widest data in that
column, or the width of the column heading, whichever is wider.
• Fit to Pane resizes all columns to fit inside the current width of the pane (so that no
scroll bar is required).
• copy this data to a file
• copy it without the headers to a file

2.6.6 Multiple vs. Grouped Display Results

When you request element data from a higher node level, iMonitor provides you with an interim
dialog where you can select which remotes for which to request data. How the data is displayed
depends on the type of data you are requesting. Two different behaviors are possible:

• When the data makes sense only for a single network element, iMonitor launches
multiple displays, one for each element.
• When the data from multiple elements can be shown together, iMonitor launches a
single pane and displays all data in that pane.

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2.7 Using iMonitor’s Interface
iMonitor’s main window is comprised of several toolbars and panes which are described below.

Figure 2-3: iMonitor Main Window

2.7.1 Clicking on Elements: What Happens?

Right-Clicking
In general, you must right-click on your mouse or use the task bar to display any list of options in
submenus that can be performed on the element you currently have selected.

Single-Clicking vs. Double-Clicking

You can single-click a plus (+) or minus (-) sign next to an element in the Tree to expand or
contract the branches to the next level down in the tree for that element. You can double-click a
remote or iSCPC line card in the tree to open the Control Panel for that element.

You can double-click any element in the Tree that has been expanded to automatically contract
the branches below that node.

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2.7.2 Globe Functions
Right-clicking the Globe in the Tree allows you to move dockable panes, sort columns hide
elements, expand the Tree and Collapse the Tree.

Using the Docking Feature

Docking refer to the ability to move a window pane of the NMS interface to another location on the
screen or to detach it from the screen entirely and place it somewhere else on your monitor. In
iDirect’s NMS, the dockable panes have double-ridge lines at the top of the pane.

To dock a window pane somewhere else on the NMS interface or on your monitor, follow the
procedure below:

Step 1 Point to and right-click the double-ridge lines of the pane you want to move
and select Allow Docking.

Step 2 Place the pointer (mouse arrow) on the double-ridge lines and drag the
pane wherever you want it. Depending on where you drag it, the pane may
change shape (for example, from a vertical display to a horizontal display).

Step 3 If you want to move the pane back into its original place or to another
location, start by grabbing the double-ridge lines with your pointer. Then,
you can click the Name toolbar at the top of the pane to move it around, and
you can place your pointer at the edges of the pane to resize the pane.

Step 4 To detach the pane completely, double-click the double-ridge lines. The
pane becomes separately parented and you may move it independently
from the main iMonitor window.

Hiding Elements
You can click Hide to remove iMonitor Network Tree from view.

Expanding Tree
To expand the Tree to view all of the children elements, select Expand Tree. The Tree will expand
to show all of the child elements.

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 Figure 2-4: Expand Tree Selection Figure 2-5: Expanded Tree with Child Elements

Collapsing Tree
To collapse the Tree to view only the top level elements, select Collapse Tree. The Tree will
contract to show only the top level elements.

Figure 2-6: Collapse Tree Selection Figure 2-7: Collapsed Tree

Sorting Columns
In any pane with columns or list controls, you can sort the entries in the pane by clicking on the
heading of the given column.

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Sorting the Tree
To sort the Tree, follow the steps below:

Step 1 Right-click in the Tree pane (or right-click the double-ridge lines above the
Tree pane) and select Sort Tree. You can also select Edit J Sort Tree.l

Step 2 The Sort Preferences dialog box is displayed.

Step 3 Click the Sort items in drop-down list and select either Ascending or
Descending.

Step 4 Click the Sort items by drop-down list and select one of the options.
Depending on what you select in this field, your choices in the Apply sort to
field will change.

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Step 5 If you select Name, either click the Names are case sensitive check box or
clear it.

Step 6 Select the element to which you want to apply the Sort feature. The options
are:

• Remote
• Hub
• Inroute Group

Step 7 Click OK. The next time you log in, iMonitor will remember and display the
last sort preference you chose.

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2.7.3 Network Tree
By right-clicking a tree element, a submenu of options appears, which you may click to view
various types of data and other information used to monitor and troubleshoot your network. For
specific information on how to use and interpret the information you view, see the section on that
particular option. Use the Contents or Index to locate this information if you do not readily see it.
Below is a description of the menu options for each element in the tree.

A plus sign (+) next to an element in the Tree indicates that additional elements exist at the next
level, or branch, of the Tree. Click the plus sign (+) to expand the element to view the next level
of the Tree.

A minus sign (-) next to an element indicates that the element has been expanded and children
are visible at the next level, or branch, in the Tree.

In the figure below, the UAT-RF Network has been expanded as far as possible. The UAT-RF
Network cannot include children in another network; therefore, its only children are the TxRx and
Rx line cards, and the IG_1_UAT-RF Inroute Group. The Inroute Group is a parent element that
can be expanded by clicking its plus sign (+) to reveal its children elements at the next level of the
Tree.

2.7.4 Using the Interface Toolbars and Menu Options

Title Bar
The Title bar identifies the name of the application (in this case, iMonitor), the iDS software
version, and the IP address of the server to which you are connected.

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Menu Bar
The Menu bar at the top of the display provides access to log in, log out, quit, and other high-level
functions.

Toolbar
The main Toolbar, shown below, contains context-sensitive buttons, allowing you to perform a
variety of operations on a currently-selected element without using its context menu. Their
functions are described in Table 2-1.

Table 2-1: Toolbar Icons and Functions

Toolbar Icon Functionality

Allows you to view elements in the Tree Menu hierarchy

Allows you to view Conditions. The Conditions pane has two tabs you can select
to view different aspects of the conditions: Conditions Log and Observation
View. See Section 3.1.2 “Conditions Pane” on page 34 for more information.

Allows you to pause the Timeplan Graph.

Allows you to resume the Timeplan Graph.

Allows you to turn audio on or off when a new alarm or condition is presented or
when a condition is cleared.

Allows you to acknowledge a condition.

Opens the Find Toolbar next to the Main Toolbar

Allows you to accept any changes made to the system by another user. This
does not mean that you approve of or agree with the changes; it simply updates
your GUI with the latest database information.

Allows you to view the version number of the NMS and system information.

Audio Notification
You can choose to turn on audio notification to alert you whenever a new alarm or condition is
raised. When you select audio notification, you are only notified of newly-raised conditions by

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default. When you acknowledge conditions, the audio notification will stop, even if the alarm has
not yet cleared.

To configure audio notification, select Results J Audio Notification from the main menu. You can
select any of the three conditions under which you would like to have an audio notification raised.

You may select one, two, or all three. If you wish to have no audio notification, select None.

To set up how often you want the audio notification to be repeated, or to specify that the
notification should play only when a new condition occurs, select Results J Audio Notification J
Properties from the main menu. Then configure one of the two choices in the dialog box.

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Acknowledging Conditions
You can also use iMonitor to acknowledge all conditions. If audio notification is in effect,
acknowledging conditions prevents continuous audio notification, even if the condition that raised
the audio notification has not cleared. Once you’ve acknowledged conditions, audio notification
will stop until a new condition is raised. When you acknowledge conditions in iMonitor, all
outstanding conditions are acknowledged. You cannot acknowledge individual conditions.

To acknowledge conditions:

Step 1 If not already visible, open the Conditions pane by clicking the Toggle
Conditions icon on the main toolbar.

Step 2 On the Conditions pane, select the Condition Log tab.

Step 3 Click the Acknowledgement icon on the main toolbar. On the Condition Log
tab, a check is displayed for all acknowledged conditions as shown in the
figure below.

When an operator acknowledges a condition, only that operator’s

NOTE view is affected. No changes are made on the NMS server or to
other operator accounts.

View Menu
The View menu on the main menu toolbar allows you to display or hide the following toolbars and
panes. You can also right-click your context menu button (typically the right mouse button) to see
the same options as those in the View menu.

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Find Toolbar
The Find toolbar provides users the option to search the NMS for a given element and display the
results in either the Network Tree View or the Results Window. This becomes increasingly
important as the network grows larger. You can search by selecting a specific element name in
the first drop-down list (note that only elements you have created will be in the list); by type of
element in the second drop-down list; or by Name, IP address or ID number in the third drop-down
list. The figure below shows all of the various options within each category; however, you can
actually only click one drop-down list at time. To display the Find toolbar, select View J Find
Toolbar from the main menu.

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You can also click the Find button on the toolbar to open a dialog box that gives you the same
options.

To perform a search, follow the steps below:

Step 1 Select View J Find Toolbar, or click the Find button on the toolbar. Either
the Find toolbar appears to the right of the main toolbar, or the Find dialog
box appears in the Results pane.

Step 2 Click the arrow on each drop-down list and click the criteria you want to use
in your search.

Step 3 To execute the search, you can do one of three things:

• Press Enter on the keyboard if you are searching from the Find toolbar
• Click the Binoculars icon to the left of the toolbar if you are searching
from the Find toolbar
• Click the Find Next button if you are searching from the Find dialog box
Step 4 In the example below, the user chose to look for a Remote by the Name of
3100-410 and display it in the Network Tree View.

That remote is highlighted in the Tree when the user clicks on the
binoculars icon.

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Workspace Toolbar
The Workspace capability solves one of the biggest problems with real-time monitoring systems:
window real estate. As you launch more and more displays, you may find that you’re quickly
running out of space in the results pane and you wish you had a bigger display. The Workspace
Toolbar provides a convenient way for you to organize multiple displays into a series of “virtual
workspaces”. The four workspaces on this toolbar effectively give you four times the window real
estate without having to add another display.

To launch the Workspace toolbar, select View J Workspace from iMonitor’s main menu. You will
see four small windows appear on the right-side of iMonitor’s main tool bar. Each of these windows
represents a virtual workspace where you can launch different displays. When you click one of the
workspace windows, displays you launched on another workspace are hidden and a new, blank
workspace appears. For convenience, each workspace is highlighted in yellow whenever a
display is present on that workspace.

The figure below shows the Workspace toolbar in action. In this example, workspace one contains
one or more displays and the other workspaces are empty. The fifth workspace pane, when
clicked, shows all panes in all workspaces.

Figure 2-8: The Workspace Toolbar in Action

Saving and Reloading Workspaces

In addition to using workspaces in real-time, you may also save the contents of a workspace to be
reloaded at a later time. The workspace file stores the following information about displays:

• The window pane size and position within the workspace.

• The request parameters originally specified in the requests.

Only real-time and Get Past requests are saved in workspace

NOTE files.

To save the contents of a workspace, select File J Save Workspace As from the main menu. This
operation will save all the displays currently active in the workspace. You may also adjust the
contents of any workspace and re-save it by selecting File J Open Workspace from the main
menu.

To reload a previously-saved workspace, select File J Open Workspace from the main menu.
When you reload a workspace the saved requests will be automatically resubmitted to the
appropriate servers.

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This feature works best when you have the iMonitor application maximized on your PC screen,
but will also function properly if the application is not maximized.

Operational Toolbar
The Operational Toolbar, shown below, contains context-sensitive buttons, allowing you to
perform a variety of operations on a currently-selected element without using its context menu.
Their functions are described inTable 2-2.

Table 2-2: Operational Toolbar Icons and Functions

Toolbar Icon Functionality

Request a Network Condition Snapshot.

Request a Network Data Snapshot.

Request a SAT Traffic Graph.

Request an IP Stats Graph.

Request a Mesh Traffic Graph.

Request a Timeplan Slot Assignment Graph.

Request latency results.

Request a SATCOM Graph.

Request a Remote Status/UCP report.

Request modem events.

Request conditions.

Request a SAT Long Term Bandwidth Usage report.

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 Table 2-2: Operational Toolbar Icons and Functions (Continued)

Toolbar Icon Functionality

Request a Long Term Bandwidth Usage report.

Put an element under observation.

Open a terminal session.

Status Bar
The Status bar is located at the bottom of the iMonitor window and displays the user name of the
person who is currently logged in and what their server connection status is. On the toolbar shown
below, the connection status is “Ready.”

Connection Details on Status Bar Icon

When your mouse hovers over the PC icon next to the user name on the Status bar, the IP address
of the NMS servers that you are currently connected to is displayed.

Conditions Pane
The Conditions switch on the View menu opens the Conditions pane. See Chapter 3, Monitoring
Conditions and Events for complete information on the tabs in this pane. Select View J Conditions
on the main menu to open the pane.

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Legend Pane
The Legend view displays the Configuration State icons and their meanings. They are organized
by type of element as shown below:

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Configuration Changes Pane
Whenever there are changes made to the database by another user, they can be displayed on
your screen in the Configuration Changes pane.

Viewing Real-Time Status

You can view the real time status of network elements in the Tree View by selecting View Real-
Time Status from the View menu. The status of the various elements is displayed to the right of the
element name in the tree.

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2.7.5 Selecting Columns for Viewing
In any iMonitor pane with columns, an operator can select the set of columns that will be displayed
whenever that operator views the pane. Once changed, the modified display will persist for that
operator even after log off. To select which columns to display, follow these steps:

Step 1 Right-click anywhere in the column headings to display the column

selection context menu.

Step 2 You can use the menu to select or clear individual columns for display one
at a time, or you can select More to view the Select Columns dialog box.

Step 3 In the Select Columns dialog box, click the check boxes to select or clear
the corresponding columns for display. (You can also select and clear a
check box by first selecting the column name in the list, and then clicking

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 the Show or Hide button.) Only selected columns will be displayed in the
pane.

Step 4 To change the order in which columns appear in the pane:

a Click a column name to select it.

b Click the Move Up button to move the selection one place up in the list. This
will move the column to the left in the pane.

c Click the Move Down button to move the selection down in the list. This will
move the column to the right in the pane.

Step 5 To change the width of a specific column, first select the column name.
Then enter the new width in Width of selected column.

2.7.6 Monitoring iSCPC Links

With few exceptions, you can monitor iSCPC links using the same tools provided for Star or Star/
Mesh networks. In some cases, particular monitoring screens for Star/Mesh networks are either
different or not applicable to iSCPC links. One example is the graphical timeplan display for TDMA
receive line cards — there is no equivalent display for iSCPC line cards because the upstream
channel for these links does not have a timeplan.

The following table compares iSCPC and Star network monitoring capabilities available in
iMonitor.
Table 2-3: Star Network vs. iSCPC Link Monitoring

Function Star and Star / Mesh iSCPC

Bandwidth Monitoring SAT and IP stats IP stats
Timeslot Monitoring Timeplan display N/A
Detailed remote debugging Probe display Trace Route
Trace Route

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 Table 2-3: Star Network vs. iSCPC Link Monitoring (Continued)

Function Star and Star / Mesh iSCPC

Control Panel Tabs General General,
Events/Conditions Events/Conditions
SATCOM graph IP traffic
SAT traffic, IP traffic Remote Status
Probe Latency
Remote Status QoS
UCP
Latency
QoS
Built-in Reports SAT and IP Usage IP Usage
Remote Availability Remote Availability
Latency Latency
Remote Status and UCP RemoteStatus
Events/Conditions Events/Conditions
QoS Statistics

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3 Monitoring Conditions and Events

You can view Conditions on every element in the Tree, and you can view Events on every element
except the Chassis. On the Protocol Processor and the Blades, you can further view Blade
Information. Below is a table that identifies the types of information iMonitor provides for each
element.

Table 3-1: Elements and Types of Information Provided

Type of Incident
Elements
Information Provided
Teleport Conditions
Protocol Processor Events/Conditions/Blade Info
Blades Events/Conditions/Blade Info
Network Events/Conditions
Line Card Events/Conditions
Inroute Group Events/Conditions
Remotes Events/Conditions
Chassis Conditions

3.1 Conditions
Conditions in iMonitor are made up of Alarms and Warnings, which are collectively called
“conditions.” Alarms alert you to an interruption in service, whereas Warnings indicate a condition
that could result in an interruption of service if not handled in a timely fashion.

3.1.1 Representing State of Element via Icons

iMonitor automatically displays the current state of all network elements in the network tree view.
Icons are used to indicate OK, Warning, Alarm, and Offline states.

Table 3-2: Real-Time States and Icons

State Icon Meaning

The element is functioning properly. Shown in
order from left to right are a properly functioning
OK PP, blade, line card, remote, chassis, external
device and SkyMonitor.
This icon is seen in the Conditions Log and
OK indicates that the element is functioning
properly.

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 Table 3-2: Real-Time States and Icons (Continued)

State Icon Meaning

One or more Warning conditions is active for

Warning the element.

One or more Alarm conditions are active for the

element (layer 2/3 alarm, unit not responding,
Alarm etc.). Warnings may also be active in the Alarm
state.
One or more Mesh Alarm conditions are active
for the element (layer 2/3 alarm, unit not
Mesh Alarm responding, etc.). Warnings may also be active
in the Alarm state.

Offline The remote has been sent offline.

Indicates that a roaming remote is acquired in a

Elsewhere different network.

Sleep Mode The remote has entered sleep mode.

Unknown Condition state unknown

Condition

Disabled Disabled condition

3.1.2 Conditions Pane

In addition to representing the state of an element via an icon in the Tree view, you can click
ViewJConditions to open a dockable pane at the bottom of iMonitor’s main window.

The Conditions pane has tabs that enable you to view conditions using different criteria, as
follows:

• Active Conditions – This tab shows all outstanding conditions that have not been
cleared. Any current alarms or warnings are displayed on this tab.
• Observation View – This tab shows all conditions for specific elements you have put
“Under Observation”. You put a Protocol Processor, Blade, Line Card or Remote under

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 observation by clicking the element and selecting Under Observation. You may cancel
the observation view by clicking the element in the tree and switching the Under
Observation control off, or by right-clicking on a specific condition in the Under
Observation tab and selecting Cancel Observation.
• Disabled Conditions – This tab shows any conditions that have been disabled. You can
disable an active condition by right-clicking the condition and selecting Disable
Condition.

• Condition Log – This tab shows the 500 most recent condition changes; older changes
are dropped from the display. All conditions shown on the Condition Log tab are sorted
by the time that the condition change occurred. iMonitor no longer groups condition
changes.
You can clear the contents of the Condition Log tab as follows:

Step 1 With the Condition Log tab selected, right-click anywhere in the Conditions
Pane.

Step 2 Select Clear List from the menu.

3.1.3 Elements with Multiple Conditions

It is possible for multiple conditions to exist simultaneously on a given network element. In fact,
this is quite likely when a remote drops out of the network for some reason. In these cases, the
element’s overall state reflects the highest severity of any one condition, according to the following
rules:

• No conditions: overall state is “OK”

• One or more Warnings: overall state is “Warning”
• One or more Warnings and one or more Alarms: overall state is “Alarm”
• Remote has been sent Offline: overall state is “Offline”

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3.1.4 Offline State
The offline state is a special condition that overrides all other warnings and alarms. This state
applies only to remotes. The offline state can be initiated by a remote user just before turning the
remote off, to indicate to the network operator that no problem investigation is necessary.

When a remote is sent offline by the remote user, iMonitor and the back-end event server will
ignore all subsequent alarms. If a unit is turned off without sending it offline first, the remote will
go into the Alarm state at the hub.

The offline state clears automatically when the remote is turned back on and acquires into the
network.

3.1.5 Alarms and Warnings on Elements

Table 3-3 and Table 3-4 list all of the alarm and warning conditions that can be raised for the
various elements.
Table 3-3: Explanation of Alarms by Element

Element Alarm Condition Explanation

Chassis Chassis Down iMonitor cannot communicate with the EDAS
Protocol The heartbeat has not been received from the
Protocol Processor Down
Processor Protocol Processor
iMonitor cannot communicate with the Hub Line
Line Card Down
Card
Rx SCPC Loopback C/N Line card SCPC loopback exceeds clear sky C/N.
Hub Line Card
Hub line card is no longer locked to the SCPC
TDM Lock
loopback
10 MHz Clock Alarm Board does not support 10 MHz clock
Mesh Mode Changed Mesh remote is no longer in mesh mode
Remote Mesh remote transmit TDMA exceeds clear sky
Mesh Tx TDMA C/N
C/N

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 Table 3-4: Explanation of Warnings by Element

Element Warning Condition Explanation

Power Supply “n” Failed
Chassis Fan “n” Failed
RCM (Ref Clock Module) “n” Failed
Four Slot Chassis Over
Chassis exceeds temperature limit
Temperature
RCM A has not been installed in the
Four Slot RCM A Not Present
Chassis
Four Slot RCM A Fault RCM A of the chassis has failed
RCM B has not been installed in the
Four Slot RCM B Not Present
chassis
Four Slot RCM B Fault RCM B of the chassis has failed
Four Slot Power Alarm A Bad Chassis power supply A has failed
Four Slot Power Alarm A Over Chassis power supply A exceeds
Temperature temperature limit
Four-Slot Chassis Four Slot Power Alarm B Bad Chassis power supply B has failed
Four Slot Power Alarm B Over Chassis power supply B exceeds
Temperature temperature limit
Four Slot FSM Not Present FSM has not been installed on the chassis
Four Slot FSM Fault FSM has failed on the chassis
Four Slot FSM Fan Fault FSM fan has failed on the chassis
Four Slot IFM Not Present IFM has not been installed on the chassis
Four Slot IFM Fault IFM has failed on the chassis
Four Slot Alarm Disabled Audible alarms are disabled for the chassis
Four Slot OPM A Fault OPM A has failed on the chassis
Four Slot OPM B Fault OPM B has failed on the chassis
Rx Overflow of frames Downstream Packets per sec. overdrive
Hub Line Card The 10 MHz reference timing signal is
Back plane lost 10 MHz Clock
absent from the chassis backplane
Blade CPU usage is above the defined
Protocol Processor Blade CPU high
limit

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 Table 3-4: Explanation of Warnings by Element (Continued)

Element Warning Condition Explanation

The perceived signal at the hub is above or
Upstream C/N, low 7 high 25
below limits
Perceived signal (at remote) is above or
Downstream C/N, low 7 high 25
below limits
Local LAN Disconnect LAN port on remote is disconnected
PP has temporarily lost contact with
Lost Contact
remote
Measured latency, hub to remote is more
Latency
than 2 sec.
PP has detected a symbol offset that
Symbol Offset
exceeds +/- 1/2 the acquisition aperture.
Remote Off-line State The remote has been sent off-line.
Remote
Calibrated Transmit Power Transmit power below -35 dbm
GPS Signal Lost Don’t reset remote warning
Temperature on board is higher than 75 C
Remote Temperature
and lower than 15 C
Remote Automatic Gain Control outside
AGC Out of Range
limits.
Remote receive SCPC exceeds clear sky
Rx SCPC C/N
C/N. Value will be -1 or -100.
Mesh remote receive TDMA loopback
Mesh Rx TDMA Loopback C/N
exceeds clear sky C/N
Remote transmit power is within 0.5 dB of
Maximum Tx Power
the maximum

See the Maintenance section of the iDirect Hub Chassis Installation and
NOTE User’s Guide for information on replacing failed fan and power supply
components.

SCPC conditions that apply to either network line cards or TDMA

NOTE remotes also apply to both iSCPC line cards and iSCPC remotes.

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3.2 Putting an Element under Observation for Conditions
You can put an element “under observation” for the purpose of monitoring it for any conditions that
arise on that element. Only the following elements can be put under observation for viewing
conditions (alarms and warnings):

• Protocol Processor
• Blade
• Line Card
• Remote
• Chassis
To use the Under Observation feature, follow the directions below.

Step 1 Right-click an element, for which you want to view alarms and warnings:

Step 2 Click Under Observation.

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Step 3 Select View J Conditions from the main menu or click the Conditions icon
on the main toolbar.

Step 4 Click the Observation View tab. The Observation View pane appears in the
iMonitor window, displaying only the conditions (alarms and warnings) for
the element you chose.

If you have previously put another element under observation,

without canceling that observation view, the previous element’s
NOTE information will still be visible in the pane. To omit the unwanted
information, right-click on the unwanted element and select
Cancel Observation.

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Step 5 Right-click on the element you selected to observe. You are provided the
option to either view the element’s control panel or cancel the observation.
Click the desired option.

Step 6 If you click Cancel Observation, the data in the Observation pane
disappears.

Step 7 If you click Control Panel, a pane appears providing more information for
you to view. Following is an example of the types of information you may
view on a given element (in this case, a remote) if you select Control Panel.
(SeeSection 4.8.4 “Control Panel” on page 96.)

Step 8 Follow the directions in Section 3.2.1 “Viewing Conditions or Events” on

page 42.

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3.2.1 Viewing Conditions or Events
To view conditions or events, you must specify certain criteria on the Select Items dialog box.

Viewing Conditions
If you want to view conditions, you may want to put an element under observation first. For
information on this, see Section 3.2 “Putting an Element under Observation for Conditions” on
page 39.

Viewing Events
If you are viewing events, you may want to filter the results. Often it’s useful to retrieve certain
events over an extended time period for one or more remotes. Although you can retrieve all events
and sort the results to find the ones you’re looking for, iMonitor also allows you to specify a text
filter when retrieving historical events. When you specify a text filter, iMonitor shows you only
those events that match the filter.

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The text filter is available at the bottom of the historical time range parameters dialog box (Figure
3-2 on page 45), either prior to retrieving events or from the Time Range button on an existing
events display. The filter values are applied only to the Event Description section of the event
message. The simplest filter string is simply a substring of the event description, such as “server”.
Any event message that contains your specified substring will be returned from the server and
displayed in the pane. The text field also supports full Linux regular expression matching, allowing
you to apply an arbitrarily complex expression to the event description text. For more information
on regular expressions, see any of the commercially-available Linux reference books.

To retrieve and view conditions or events, follow the directions below.

Step 1 Right-click the element in the tree for which you want to view conditions or
events.

Step 2 Click on either Conditions or Events. The Select Items dialog box appears.

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Step 3 Make your selections on the Select Items dialog box, as follows:

Step 4 Click either Historical or Get Past. If you are viewing Events, you can filter
the results, or simply press OK to begin retrieving events in real-time. If you
enter a Text Filter in the Get Past time range dialog box (Figure 3-2), the
filter values are applied only to the Event Description field of the event
message.

a If you click Historical, click Time Range. The Select Time Range dialog box
appears (see Figure 3-1 for Conditions and Figure 3-2 for Events). If
desired, click the ellipses next to the Start and End times to set the time via
the graphical clock display. If you selected Get Past, see Step b.

Figure 3-1: Conditions Time Range

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 Figure 3-2: Events Time Range with Text Filter

b If you click Get Past, the Get Past drop-down list appears.

Step 5 Select the elements for which you want to view conditions or events.

Depending on what level in the system you chose to obtain information, the
options in the Select Items dialog box will differ in what is available and
unavailable for selection.

Step 6 When you have made your selections, click OK.

Depending on whether you chose to view conditions or events, either the

Conditions/Time Line pane appears or the Events pane appears. Follow the
directions in Step 7 for Conditions or Step 10 for Events below.

Step 7 Conditions. If you are retrieving data on conditions, the Conditions/Time

Line pane appears, displaying the conditions logged for the specified
period. This data is displayed in a multicolumn format. See Figure 3-3 for
an example of data displayed on the Conditions tab.

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 On the Conditions tab, notice that many remotes have an arrow next to
them. If you click on the arrow so that it is pointing down, the conditions for
that remote are revealed.

To view conditions in a graphical format, click the Time Line tab. See Figure
3-4 for an example of data displayed on the Time Line tab.

Figure 3-3: Conditions Results in Multicolumn Format

Figure 3-4: Conditions Time Line Results in Graphical Format

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Step 8 On the Time Line display, you can right-click to elect to view the results in
Seconds, Minutes, or Hours.

Step 9 You can also elect to view Details from this menu, which displays a heading
line at the top of the display showing the following information:

• Name of Network Element

• Type and Serial Number of a Remote or Line Card
• Current Date
• Number of hours it has been up
• Number of hours it has been down
• Percentage of time it has been up (Up %)
• Percentage of time it has been down (Down %)

Step 10 Events. If you are retrieving data on events, the Events pane appears,
displaying the events logged for the specified period. This data is displayed
in a multicolumn format only. It cannot be viewed in graphical format. See
Figure 3-3 for an example of data displayed on the Events tab.

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 Figure 3-5: Event Results

3.2.2 Interpreting Conditions Results

By default, conditions are sorted in ascending order based on the timestamp. You may re-sort at
any time by clicking on the desired column heading.

Each line in the conditions display shows a particular “state change” for the unit in question at the
timestamp indicated. A state change occurs whenever a condition is raised or cleared. If the entry
contains the arrow icon, shown below, in the first column, it means that additional conditions were
active for this unit at the time of the state change. These conditions, along with the time they first
occurred, are shown when you click the arrow icon.

Arrow

Below is an example illustrating the conditions output, including multiple simultaneous conditions.

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This example takes us through a remote reset, and illustrates the following conditions:

1. The first entry shows the remote’s state at the start of the specified time range: the
remote is OK, and the last condition that cleared was DOWNSTREAM_SNR.

2. The next entry shows that the PP lost contact with the remote (this happens soon after
the reset was sent from iBuilder).

3. The next entry shows two conditions: the LOST_CONTACT warning is still active, and
has been joined by the layer 3 alarm LAT_TIMEOUT.

4. Finally, the Protocol Processor declares the remote OUT_OF_NETWORK, and this
condition is added to the list, giving us a total of three simultaneous conditions.

5. The next line shows us that two of the three conditions cleared: The remote is back in
the network and the Protocol Processor has re-gained contact with it. The layer 3
alarm at this point is still active.

6. The next line shows that the last condition, LAT_TIMEOUT, cleared.

7. The last two lines show a separate condition that was raised and cleared in a 15-
second time span.

When multiple conditions are shown in this display, the icon in the left column does not represent
the current state of the remote. Rather, it shows the type of condition that occurred at that time.
For example, in number 5 above, the state of this remote is still ALARM, since the layer 3 alarm
is still active. However, this particular entry represents the clearing of two conditions, and the
green icon indicates that to the user.

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3.3 Interpreting System Events
System events consist of a log of activity that occurs on elements in real-time and activity that is
stored in the historical archive. See Figure 3-5. Examples of system events include:

• Terminal connection set up or torn down

• Uplink control message from the Protocol Processor to remotes
• SWEEP messages during remote acquisition
• Multicast package processed or rejected
• Firmware image or options file written to flash
By default events are displayed in real-time and are sorted in ascending order by timestamp. You
may re-sort the display in ascending or descending order by clicking on the appropriate column
heading. You may also select historical events up to one week prior to the current date.

3.4 Snapshots
Snapshots can be selected from:

• Teleports
• Networks
• Inroute groups
• Remotes

3.4.1 Network Condition Snapshot

The Network Condition Snapshot shows all elements in a teleport, network, inroute group, or
remote in a multicolumn list, allowing you to view their current states more compactly than is
possible from the Tree view.

To view a snapshot of the network condition, follow these steps:

Step 1 Right-click the teleport, network or inroute group for which you want to view
a snapshot of the conditions.

Step 2 Select Network Condition Snapshot or Teleport Condition Snapshot. The

Network Condition Snapshot (or Teleport Condition Snapshot) pane
appears. Figure 3-6 shows an example of a Network Condition Snapshot at
the network level. (Both the List and Detail views are shown. You can toggle
between these views by right-clicking in the window and selecting List or
Details from the menu.)

a If you selected Teleport Condition Snapshot at the teleport level, all protocol
processors, protocol processor blades, chassis, inroute group, remotes

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 configured under the teleport, and external teleport devices are displayed
in the Network Condition Snapshot box.

b If you selected Network Condition Snapshot at the network level, every

inroute group, remote, and remote external device in that network is
displayed in the Network Condition Snapshot box.

c If you selected Network Condition Snapshot on a particular inroute group,

only the line cards, remotes, and remote external devices in that inroute
group are displayed in the Network Condition Snapshot box.

Figure 3-6: List and Details View of Network Condition Snapshot

If all hosts of an external device configured at a remote or teleport

are down, the device will be in Alarm state. If at least one host is
NOTE up and at least one host is down, the device will be in Warning
state.

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Step 3 You can view different data depending on your selections when you right-
click a network element in the Network Condition Snapshot pane. Below is
an example of a remote’s submenu when right-clicked from this pane.

Figure 3-7: Remote Submenu in Condition Snapshot

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Step 4 In the lower half of the submenu are several options that allow you to tailor
the Network Condition Snapshot view:

• Compact Icons
• Arrange Icons
• List
• Details
• Details in Group
• Real-time Status Only
• Activated
Step 5 The example below is a result of right-clicking Details.

Step 6 If you hover the pointer (mouse arrow) over an element in the snapshot, a
box of information about that element is displayed. Below is an example of
the pointer hovering over a line card in a network.

If you are ever in doubt as to what you are pointing at, look at the Type: line.
In this case, you can see that the type of element for which the box is
providing information is “Line card.” The box also provides the following
information on this element:

• Type of Unit and Serial Number

• Type of element
• Name of element
• Current Condition of element
• Other Details about the element

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 Step 7 You can further double-click on a Remote in the snapshot view to see the
remote’s Control Panel. See Section 4.8.4 “Control Panel” on page 96 for
information about the control panel.

Multiple Selection Options in Condition Snapshot View

You may also use Windows’ multiple-select keys to select any number of remotes from the
Network Condition Snapshot display. The elements you select are used to populate the
parameters dialog windows for the following iMonitor displays:

• SAT/IP Traffic Stats

• Latency
• Events
• Conditions
• Network Data Snapshot
• SAT/IP Long Term Bandwidth Reports
• Remote Availability Report
The following figure illustrates the use of multiple-select to populate a parameters dialog.

Step 1 In the Network Condition Snapshot results view, with Details selected as
shown in Figure 3-7, select the remotes whose data you want to
automatically be filled in on one of the above parameters dialog boxes,
such as Remote Availability Report. Below is a figure showing five remotes
selected.

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Step 2 With your mouse pointer located within the region of the highlighted
elements, right-click and select a report from those available. In this
example, Remote Availability is selected. Notice that the resulting Select
Remote Devices parameters dialog box shows only the remotes that are
highlighted above. If you had selected this same report (Remote
Availability) from the Tree, even with these remotes highlighted, the
resulting dialog box would have listed all of the remotes—not just the ones
you highlighted. Thus, it is important to ensure that your mouse pointer is
actually over the highlighted elements when you right-click.

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3.4.2 Network Data Snapshot
The Network Data Snapshot display allows you to select multiple real-time parameters for a group
of remotes and display the data in a spreadsheet-like format. This display is very useful when you
want to monitor a variety of real-time data points for multiple remotes simultaneously.

To view a snapshot of network data, follow the directions below:

Step 1 Right-click the element for which you want to view a snapshot of data for a
network or specific inroute group.

Step 2 Select Network Data Snapshot. The Select Items and Stats dialog box
appears.

Step 3 Select the items and statistics you want to display in your results view, as
follows:

• Config Info
• Performance Info (IP/SAT stats and latency)
• Remote Status (runtime parameters from the remotes)

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 • UCP (uplink control messages to remotes from the PP)
Step 4 By default all remotes are displayed in the Remotes section. To select only
Activated remotes, select Active. To clear all remotes, select Clear. In this
example, Clear was selected, and then only the Martinsburg remote was
selected for the snapshot.

Step 5 Click OK.

Step 6 Real-time data is displayed in the results pane. Limit-checked parameters,

such as downstream C/N, change to yellow if the values go outside the
defined limits. Remotes that are out-of-network are displayed in red. Below
is an example.

Step 7 You can right-click anywhere that data appears in the pane in order to take
advantage of a set of options, as shown below.

Step 8 From this set of options, you can do any of the following:

• copy this data to the clipboard for pasting into other applications
• copy it without the headers to the clipboard for pasting into other
applications
• expand the headers to view the complete data within each column
• fit the columns to the size of the window you have open for viewing
• As with any Windows-based application, you can resize the viewing
window or drag the edges of a column to expand or contract its width.

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4 Obtaining Performance and Status Information

You can obtain many types of performance information on the elements in your network. The
following sections describe how to obtain and interpret this information:

• “Monitoring Blades in iMonitor” on page 59

• “Using the Remote Probe” on page 61
• “CPU Usage (Blades Only)” on page 66
• “Timeplan” on page 68
• “Inroute Distribution” on page 71
• “Latency” on page 74
• “Retrieving Information on Remotes using Probe Mesh” on page 77
• “Satellite Link Information” on page 79
• “Connecting to Network Elements” on page 98
• “Monitoring Your Bandwidth with SkyMonitor” on page 100

4.1 Monitoring Blades in iMonitor

iMonitor provides a rich suite of monitoring tools to allow you to monitor blade activity and
configuration. Various displays allow you to determine the processes running on each blade, the
remotes assigned to each blade, and the CPU utilization of each blade. Additionally, the CPU
usage is archived for historical retrieval (NOTE: archiving is implemented in release 6.0.0).

To view blade information, follow the directions below:

Step 1 Right-click a protocol processor or a blade in the Tree.

Step 2 Click Blade Info. The Blade Info pane appears.

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Step 3 Click on any of three tabs to view different types of information. See the
following three images for examples of all three tabs’ information.

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 Step 4 You can also right-click on the blade in any of these displays and click CPU
Usage. This option allows you to view historical information about CPU
usage on blades. See Section 4.3 “CPU Usage (Blades Only)” on page 66
for instructions on how to obtain and use this information.

4.2 Using the Remote Probe

The Probe pane is available from the individual Remote nodes in the network tree view. It allows
you to perform specific tasks on a single remote, and provides a mechanism for retrieving protocol
layer statistics from the Protocol Processor controlling the remote.

Specifically, the probe allows you to perform any of the following operations from a single dialog
box:

• Change a remote’s transmit power

• Connect to a remote or protocol processor blade
• Reset a remote
• Transmit a modulated or unmodulated carrier from a remote
• Retrieve data from and perform other functions on a remote’s protocol
processor
• Perform LL Bounce and Acq Bounce on all protocol layers
Because the information in the display is specific to an individual remote, when you select multiple
remotes from an intermediate tree node iMonitor launches a separate pane for each remote.

The Probe pane is organized into the following sections:

• Remote Power – allows you to dynamically change the remote’s transmit power using
a MAC-level message from the Protocol Processor. The remote does not have to be
in the network to receive this message, but it must be locked onto the downstream
carrier.
• Terminal Sessions – allows you to launch a terminal window to this remote or to the
remote’s protocol processor blade. The remote must be in the network and your PC
must be able to “ping” the remote for the remote terminal function to work.

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 • Reset Remote – allows you to reset the remote using a MAC-level message from the
Protocol Processor. The remote does not have to be in the network to receive this
message, but it must be locked onto the downstream carrier.
• Cross Polarization – allows you to transmit an unmodulated or modulated carrier on a
specified frequency from a remote.
• Protocol Processor – allows you to view statistics, reset statistics, view parameters,
“bounce” the link layer, or perform an ACQ Bounce.
The Protocol Processor section of the Probe pane allows you to “bounce” the link layer, which
causes it to go through its initialization handshake sequence and perform the “ACQ Bounce”
function on this remote. ACQ Bounce is discussed in “Performing ACQ Bounce” on page 73.
Inroute Distribution is discussed in Section 4.5 “Inroute Distribution” on page 71.

Step 1 Right-click a remote.

Step 2 Select Probe from the menu. The Probe dialog box appears.

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Step 3 To alter the Transmit Power Value, click Change in the Remote Power
section to display the Change Remote Tx Power dialog box. Type the
desired New Tx Power and click Set. Note that you cannot set the power
outside of the Min/Max range defined for this remote in iBuilder.

Step 4 To connect directly to the remote or protocol processor blade, click Remote
or Blade in the Terminal Sessions box.

Step 5 To reset the modem, click the Reset button.

Step 6 To transmit an unmodulated (CW) or modulated (PN) carrier:

a Specify an unused RF Uplink Frequency for transmission. This is the center

frequency of the satellite carrier you want to transmit.

b Specify the BUC LO Frequency translation for the remote’s BUC.

c Click Start CW to begin transmitting an unmodulated carrier, or click Start

PN to begin transmitting a modulated carrier.

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 d To dynamically change the transmit power once the carrier is active, select
the up and down arrows in the Transmit Power section of the screen. Each
time you click an arrow, the transmit power will change by .5 dBm.

e To change to a different frequency, click the Stop button to bring down the
existing carrier; specify a new RF Uplink Frequency; then click the
appropriate start button to retransmit the carrier.

f When you have finished, reset the remote to return the remote to normal
functionality. You can use the Reset button on the probe, or you can reset
the remote from iBuilder.

A carrier launched from this screen will automatically stop

transmitting five minutes after the carrier was started or the power
NOTE was last adjusted. You can configure a custom key on the remote
to change this timeout. See “Modifying the Timeout Duration for a
CW or PN Carrier” on page 65 for details.

Step 7 To view statistics, reset statistics or perform “bounce” functions, select a

layer in the Protocol Layer drop-down list.

Step 8 Select the button to the right that will provide the desired data, reset the
statistics or perform the desired bounce function. You can save data you
retrieve to a file using the Save To File button.

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Modifying the Timeout Duration for a CW or PN Carrier
A carrier launched from the Cross Polarization section of the Probe will automatically stop
transmitting five minutes after the carrier was started or the power was last adjusted. You can
modify this timeout duration in iBuilder by configuring a custom key on the remote, as follows:

Step 1 Right-click the remote in the iBuilder network tree and select ModifyJItem.

Step 2 Click the Custom tab.

Step 3 In the Remote-side Configuration section of the Custom tab, define the
following custom key:

[OOB_PARAMS]

cross_pol_test_timeout = <Seconds>

where <Seconds> is the carrier timeout in seconds.

The following example sets the timeout to 600 seconds (10 minutes).

Step 4 Click OK to save the remote configuration.

Step 5 Right-click the remote in the iBuilder network tree and select Apply
ConfigurationJReliable Remote-Side (TCP).

Step 6 When the confirmation dialog box appears, click Yes to send the changes
to the remote.

Step 7 When the new dialog box appears, click Reset Now for the updated timer to
take effect on the remote.

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4.3 CPU Usage (Blades Only)
The CPU Usage display can be selected from blades. To view CPU usage, follow the directions
below.

Step 1 Right-click a blade and select CPU Usage. The Select Items dialog box
appears. (Note that only Real-time will be available in the Get Past menu.)

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Step 2 Select the blade for which you want to view information. Notice that the Line
Cards and Remotes sections are unavailable for selection.

Step 3 Click List View to view the data in multicolumn format.

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 Step 4 You can also view limited CPU Usage information in list format on the CPU
Usage tab by following the directions in Section 4.1 “Monitoring Blades in
iMonitor” on page 59.

4.4 Timeplan
The Timeplan graph shows you the number of TDMA time slots allocated to each remote on an
inroute, averaged over a one-second time period. This display provides an excellent glance at the
relative “busy-ness” of the inroute and the remotes that are getting the most time slots. This
display shows real-time data only; the NMS back-end does not archive Timeplan slot allocations.

The Timeplan display can be selected from:

• receive line cards

• inroute groups

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To view Timeplan information, follow the directions below:

Step 1 Right-click a receive line card or an inroute group.

Step 2 Select Time Plan from the menu. If you selected an inroute group from the
tree, the Timeplan graph will appear immediately. However, if you selected
a receive line card from the tree, the Select Line Cards dialog box appears.

Step 3 Select the receive line cards or inroute groups for which you wish to view
data. You can also select:

• All to select all elements in the list

• Clear to clear all elements in the list
• Active to select only the active elements in the list.
Step 4 Click OK.

Step 5 The Timeplan graph appears.

Because the information in the display is specific to an individual inroute (i.e. line card), when you
select multiple line cards from the inroute group level iMonitor launches a separate pane for each
line card.

The graph is organized into two sections. The top section of the graph shows the total number of
slots allocated across all remotes in the inroute. The Y-axis of this display is scaled to the total
number of time slots available on this inroute. For each entry written to the top graph, the bottom

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graph shows the slot allocation to each remote, along with the total number of unallocated (i.e.
free) slots. Check the “Show Serial Numbers” box to toggle the display of remote name vs. serial
number in the bottom graph.

The graph does not show slots handed out via free-slot allocation;
NOTE it only shows slots allocated based on remote demand.

Step 6 Click Slot Assignment.

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 Step 7 The Slot Assignment multicolumn list appears. A second tab, labeled Slot
Assignment, shows each raw timeplan message as it is sent to the remotes.

Pausing the Timeplan Graph and Highlighting Individual Entries

For convenience, and to study a particular section of the graph for an extended period of time,
iMonitor allows you to pause the output of the Timeplan graph. On iMonitor’s main tool bar, press
the Pause button to temporarily stop output. You may now click a particular entry in the top
graph; the lower graph changes to reflect the allocation across remotes for that particular entry in
the graph. Press the Forward button to resume the display (no data is shown for the time period
during which you were paused).

4.5 Inroute Distribution

The Inroute Distribution display also shows timeplan slot allocation averaged over a 1-second
interval, but in this case it is displayed in table format for all inroutes in an inroute group. This
display is useful for displaying how slots are allocated across all inroutes in a group that is using
Frequency Hopping. The display show data in real-time only; the NMS back-end does not archive
timeplan slot allocations.

The Inroute distribution display can be selected from:

• networks
• inroute groups
Because the information in the display is specific to an individual inroute group, when you select
multiple line cards from the network level iMonitor launches a separate pane for each inroute
group in the network.

This display is organized into the following columns:

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 • Remote name and serial number
• Total slots allocated to this remote across ALL inroutes
• The totals at the bottom show the total slots allocated to all remotes across all
inroutes, the percentage of the total bandwidth this represents, and the total
number of slots in all timeplans
• For each inroute, the total number of slots allocated to each remote in the inroute
• The totals at the bottom show the total slots allocated to all remotes in this inroute,
the percentage of this inroute’s bandwidth this represents, and the total number of
slots in this timeplan
To view the inroute distribution, follow the directions below. The procedure is slightly different
depending on whether you start by clicking on a network or directly on an inroute group:

Networks

Step 1 Right-click a network in the Tree.

Step 2 Click Inroute Distribution. The Select Inroute Groups dialog box appears. In
the example below, this network has only one inroute group. However, a
network may have many inroute groups listed.

Step 3 Select the inroute groups for which you want to view data.

Step 4 Click OK. The Inroute Distribution pane appears.

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Inroute Groups

Step 1 Right-click an inroute group.

Step 2 Click Inroute Distribution. The Inroute Distribution pane appears, as shown
above.

Performing ACQ Bounce

The Inroute Distribution display allows you to perform the “ACQ Bounce” function for all remotes
or selected remotes in the inroute group. This function is most useful if the inroute group is in
Carrier Grooming mode, and due to a hub reset remotes are no longer evenly-distributed across
the inroutes in the group. ACQ Bounce causes remotes to go through the acquisition process from
scratch without resetting. It takes only a few seconds, and the Protocol Processor will re-distribute
the remotes evenly across all inroutes.

To perform the ACQ Bounce function, select the remotes you want to bounce, launch the context
menu with your right-mouse button, and select the ACQ Bounce option.

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4.6 Latency
The NMS measures the round-trip time from the hub to each remote and back every five seconds.
All values are available from iMonitor in real-time. Latency responses exceeding 800 msec. are
available from the historical archive and are saved for one week by default. The Latency display
can be selected from:

• networks
• inroute groups
• remotes
To view latency, follow the directions below:

Step 1 Right-click a network, inroute group, or remote in the Tree.

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Step 2 Click Latency. The Select Items dialog box appears.

Step 3 Select the remotes for which you want to view information. Notice that all
but the Remotes section are unavailable for selection.

Step 4 Select either the Historical or the Get Past check box, or press OK to begin
viewing latency in real-time.

a If you select Historical, click Time Range. The Select Time Range dialog box
appears (see below). If desired, click the ellipses next to the Start and End
times to set the time via the graphical clock display. If you selected Get Past,
see Step b. (Note that historical latency reports will show only data for

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 latency timeouts. They will not show measurements that are below the
threshold.)

b If you selected Get Past, the Get Past drop-down list appears. Select an
interval of time.

Step 5 Click OK.

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 Step 6 The Latency pane appears, as shown below.

The NMS measures latency by sending an empty ICMP echo request and measuring the elapsed
time until it receives a corresponding ICMP echo response from the remote. The round-trip time
(RTT) is limit-checked by default; if the RTT is greater than two seconds, iMonitor will raise a
Warning for this remote. Additionally, the receipt of the ICMP echo response is used to generate
the layer 3 LATENCY Alarm, which indicates a potential IP problem. The NMS back-end
generates this alarm if it misses three consecutive ICMP echo responses.

Latency is measured from the NMS server; the latency results do

NOTE not represent latency values from the remotes to arbitrary IP
addresses on the public Internet.

As with all multicolumn lists, you may copy/paste multiple rows from the latency display into
another Windows application such as Excel for further analysis.

4.7 Retrieving Information on Remotes using Probe Mesh

The Probe Mesh pane is available from the individual mesh remote nodes in the network tree view.
It allows you to examine statistics on mesh communications between pairs of mesh remotes.

Specifically, Probe Mesh allows you select a pair of remotes and observe the following data for
each:

• The number of attempts to transmit to the peer remote

• The number of bursts successfully transmitted to the peer remote
• The number of bursts received from the peer remote
• The number of bursts received from the peer remote that were dropped

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To display the Probe Mesh pane:

Step 1 Right-click on a mesh remote and click Probe Mesh to display the Select
Mesh Remotes Pair dialog box.

Step 2 Select the peer remote from the Remote Two list and click OK. The Probe
Mesh pane is displayed showing the information described above.

Probe Mesh is primarily intended for debugging. When Probe

Mesh is enabled, the remotes send debug information to iMonitor.
NOTE This increases the processing on the remotes and uses upstream
bandwidth that could otherwise be used to send traffic.

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4.8 Satellite Link Information
Satellite link information can be selected from:

• networks—Line Card Stats

• line cards—Line Card Stats
• remotes—SATCOM Graph and Remote Status/UCP

4.8.1 Line Card Statistics

The NMS collects hub line card statistics on a regular basis and saves them in the historical
archive. iMonitor can display these stats either in real-time or from the archive. By default, the
NMS saves line card statistics for one week.

The line cards statistics are available from the following nodes in the network tree view:

• Network
• Line Cards
Because the information in the display is specific to an individual line card, when you select
multiple line cards from the network level, iMonitor launches a separate pane for each line card.

The line card statistics contain the following information for each line card. Note that some
information will be blank depending on the role of the line card (Tx, Tx/Rx, Rx):

• Date/time the measurement was taken

• Name and serial number of the line card
• Attempted transmits during the time period
• Transmitted bytes during the time period
• Transmit errors
• Acquisition and Traffic CRC errors
• TDMA Bursts detected
• Received bytes
• Receive power in dBm
• Number of DMA resets (receive buffer overflow)
• PP line card tunnel receive errors
• PP line card tunnel transmit errors
• Receive digital gain
• FLL DAC
• SCPC loopback clear sky C/N
• SCPC loopback symbol offset
• SCPC loopback frequency offset

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 • TDM lock (locked or not locked)
• Number of times TDM lock was lost
To view line card statistics on networks and line cards, follow the directions below:

Step 1 Right-click the network or line card for which you want to view line card
status.

a If you selected Line Card Stats at the Network level, every line card in that
network is displayed in the Line Cards box.

b If you selected Line Card Stats on a particular line card, only that line card
is displayed in the Line Cards box.

Step 2 Click Line Card Stats. The Select Items dialog box appears.

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Step 3 Click either Historical or Get Past, or click OK for real-time.

a If you select Historical, click Time Range. The Select Time Range dialog box
appears (see below). If desired, click the ellipses next to the Start and End
times to set the time via the graphical clock display. If you selected Get Past,
see Step b.

b If you click Get Past, the Get Past drop-down list appears.

Step 4 Select the line cards for which you want to view statistics, and click OK. The
Hub Stats results pane appears.

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Identifying Remotes Causing Rx CRC Errors on iNFINITI Line Cards
Transmit problems on one or more remotes may cause CRC errors on the hub line card that is
receiving the upstream carrier. CRC errors could be caused by any of a number of problems: a
remote transmitting above the saturation point, a bad cable, interference, etc.

If the upstream carrier is being received by an iNFINITI line card, you can use the iDirect Rx CRC
Correlation feature to identify which remote or remotes are causing the receive packet errors (Rx
CRC errors) on the card.

See Appendix D, Rx CRC Error Correlation on page 203 for details.

4.8.2 SATCOM Graph

The SATCOM display shows satellite link characteristics for an individual remote on the upstream
and downstream channels, either in real-time or from the historical archive. This display is most
useful for showing the relationships between hub-side uplink power control and remote transmit
power. It also graphs the frequency and symbol offset calculations applied to the remote from the
Protocol Processor.

The SATCOM display is available only from remotes. Because the information in the display is
specific to an individual remote, when you select multiple remotes from an intermediate node,
iMonitor launches a separate pane for each remote.

Remote Status and UCP Info

Remote Status messages come from the remote itself, while UCP messages come from the
Protocol Processor during uplink control processing. Sometimes it is useful to see the actual raw
data that is used to generate the graph. The remote status message contains a number of other
pieces of information not shown in the graph. As with any multicolumn list, you may copy/paste
multiple rows from these tabs into another Windows application, such as Excel, for further

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processing. These real-time/historical displays show raw UCP and Remote Status information.
This display allows you to request up to one week of UCP and Remote Status messages.

Display
You may adjust the default color settings on this display by selecting the Properties option from
the context menu. Right-click anywhere inside the display to launch the menu.

Procedure for Viewing SATCOM Graph, Remote Status and UCP Info
To view the SATCOM Graph, Remote Status, or UCP Info on remotes, follow the directions below:

Step 1 Right-click the remote for which you want to view information. Select
SATCOM Graph or Remote Status/UCP Info. The Select Items dialog box
appears. (You can also view this information on the remote Control Panel.
See Section 4.8.4 “Control Panel” on page 96.)

Step 2 Click either Historical or Get Past, or OK for real-time.

a If you select Historical, click Time Range. The Select Time Range dialog box
appears (see below). If desired, click the ellipses next to the Start and End

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 times to set the time via the graphical clock display. If you selected Get Past,
see Step b.

b If you click Get Past, the Get Past drop-down list appears.

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The SATCOM Graph pane appears with four tabs. The Remote Status and UCP Info tabs contain
the raw data used to draw the SATCOM graph. The Mesh UCP tab can be used to graph various
Uplink Control parameters for a remote.

The figure above is an example of the SATCOM display. This example shows the most recent
twenty minutes of data using the “Get Past” option of the parameters dialog box. The window is
organized into three separate graphs. The displays show the following information:

• Graph 1 – The downstream signal-to-noise ratio as perceived at the remote,

superimposed on top of the number of times the remote has lost lock on the
downstream carrier (TDM lost). The TDM lost value is cumulative since the remote was
last powered-up, but this graph shows only deltas from message to message.
• Graph 2 – The upstream signal-to-noise ratio as perceived at the hub, superimposed
on top of the remote’s transmit power.
• Graph 3 – The symbol and frequency offset values applied to the remote from the
Protocol Processor as part of uplink control processing.

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Each graph contains heading text that shows the last value received (either real-time or from the
archive depending on the type of request). You may close any of the displays by clicking on the
“X” in the upper-right corner of the graph.

The maximum time range you may display in this pane is one
NOTE hour. This limit includes both historical and real-time information.

Mesh UCP Tab

You can use the Mesh UCP tab to display graphs of hub-side and remote-side UCP information for
a remote. There are three graphs in the Mesh UCP pane: View 1, View 2 and Tx Power.

To view the Mesh UCP pane and select the parameters to view in each graph:

Step 1 Select the Mesh UCP tab to display the graphs.

Figure 4-1: Mesh UCP Graph

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 Step 2 Display the Parameters section of the screen by right-clicking anywhere in
the Mesh UCP pane and selecting Show Parameters from the menu.

Step 3 In the Parameters section, select the parameters you want to display in the
three graphs. (Parameter selection and parameter definitions are
discussed in detail in the next two sections.)

Selecting Parameters in the Mesh UCP Tab

The following rules apply when you select or clear the various parameter check boxes:

• For parameters with two check boxes:

• Selecting the first check box causes the parameter to be displayed in View 1.
• Selecting the second check box causes the parameter to be displayed in View 2.
• For Hub-Side and Remote-Side Information, you can select individual parameters, or
you can select the parameter group using the All or None check boxes.
• The Show area of the pane allows you to select or clear groups of parameters in both
views as follows:
• Selecting All (View 1 and 2) causes all parameters to be displayed in both views.
• Selecting None (View 1 and 2) causes all parameters to be cleared from both views.
• Selecting or clearing the two SCPC check boxes controls the display of all SCPC
parameters in View 1 and View 2 as a group.
• Selecting or clearing the two TDMA check boxes controls the display of all TDMA
parameters in View 1 and View 2 as a group.

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 • The Tx Power area of the pane allows you to select which of the transmit power
parameters are displayed in the Tx Power graph.
Mesh UCP Parameter Definitions
In the View 1 and View 2 graphs, you can view UCP parameters for both the downstream SCPC
carrier and for the remote’s TDMA mesh carrier.

The first two parameters under Hub Side Information show the hub’s values for the SCPC carrier:

• SCPC C/N (Loopback) is the current C/N value for the downstream SCPC carrier as
measured by the hub line card.
• SCPC Clear Sky C/N is the C/N of the loopback SCPC carrier set during hub
commissioning.
The second two parameters under Hub Side Information show the hub’s values for the TDMA
mesh carrier used by this remote:

• TDMA C/N is the current C/N value for the remote’s TDMA mesh carrier as measured
by the hub line card.
• TDMA Clear Sky C/N is the C/N of the remote’s TDMA mesh carrier set during hub
commissioning.
The first two parameters under Remote Side Information show the remote’s values for the SCPC
carrier:

• SCPC C/N is the current C/N value for the downstream SCPC carrier as measured by
the remote modem.
• SCPC Clear Sky C/N is the C/N of the downstream SCPC carrier set during remote
commissioning.
The second two parameters under Remote Side Information show the remote’s values for the
TDMA mesh carrier:

• TDMA C/N is the current C/N value for the remote’s TDMA mesh carrier as measured
by the remote modem.
• TDMA Clear Sky C/N is the C/N of the loopback TDMA mesh carrier set during remote
commissioning.
In the Tx Power graph you can view the following transmit power parameters for the remote:

• Tx Power is the current transmit power setting for the remote.

• Init Tx Power is the initial transmit power for the remote set during remote
commissioning.
• Tx Power – Init Tx Power shows the difference between the first two parameters
Remote Status and UCP Info Tabs
The Remote Status data and UCP Info are displayed in the two figures below.

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 Figure 4-2: Remote Status Raw Data

Figure 4-3: UCP Info Raw Data

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4.8.3 Group QoS Statistics
You can view the following real-time or historical Group QoS Statistics in iMonitor:

• Upstream QoS statistics for QoS groups and subgroups for any Inroute Group
• Upstream QoS statistics for individual remotes or for specific applications running on
individual remotes
• Downstream QoS statistics for QoS groups and subgroups for any Network

If the GQoS configuration has changed, then historical GQoS

NOTE statistics that were logged under the previous configuration will
not be displayed.

Viewing QoS Statistics

Step 1 To view QoS statistics, do one of the following:

• Right-click your Network in the iMonitor tree and select Downstream

Qos Stats from the menu, or
• Right-click an Inroute Group or Remote in the iMonitor tree and select
Upstream QoS Stats from the menu.

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Step 2 In the Group Tree pane of the Select Group dialog box, select an element in
the tree over which you want to aggregate the Group QoS statistics. Sub-
elements will be automatically selected.

Checking Select single node allows you to select an individual

NOTE element in the Group Tree pane. This is illustrated below.

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 Step 3 Select Real time, or enter a Start Time, End Time and Duration. Then click
OK to view the Group Stats display.

Step 4 By selecting elements at different levels of the tree in the left-hand pane,
you can control the aggregation of the statistics displayed in the List and
Plot tabs of the right-hand pane. The example above shows the total
statistics aggregated over the selected Service Group.

The following statistics are displayed in the List tab in the right-hand pane of the Group Stats
display:

• BW Req shows the total bandwidth requested by the selected subgroup

• BW Alloc shows the total bandwidth allocated by the selected subgroup
• Free BW Alloc shows the number of slots allocated to the remote in excess of the
requested bandwidth.

The BW Req column only displays correct data when congestion

NOTE is not present.

When you right-click on a remote and select Upstream QoS Stats

from the menu, you can view all the QoS statistics for a single
NOTE remote. The Select Group dialog box for a single remote is shown
below.

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Step 5 Click the Plot tab to view a graphical representation of the data on the List
tab. By default, three graphs appear: BW Requested, BW Allocated and
BW Free.

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 Step 6 You can right-click anywhere in the plot area and highlight Select Graph to
view or hide any of the three graphs.

You can also use the right-click menu to change the display. For example, you can select
ChangeJScale to modify the scales of the X axis or Y axis; select Legend to display or hide the
legend; or Change the background (Back Color) or Text color. If you select Mouse Tracking, you
can click and drag along the plot line to view the value of each data point.

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Saving QoS Statistics to an Excel Spreadsheet or to a CSV Formatted File
You can export the Group QoS statistics from the Group Stats List tab to an Excel spreadsheet or
to Comma Separated Variable (CSV) formatted file by following these steps:

Step 1 Right-click in the display area of the List tab and select Export to Excel or
Export to CSV from the menu.

Step 2 In the Save As dialog box, browse to the folder in which you want to save
the statistics. Then enter a File Name and click Save.

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4.8.4 Control Panel
The Control Panel is available only on remotes. It provides “everything you ever wanted to know
about a remote” in a single, multi-tabbed display. You can view configuration information,
SATCOM information, IP and satellite traffic statistics, Probe, QoS settings, latency, and events/
conditions simply by clicking from tab to tab in this single pane.

The Control Panel is available only from individual remotes in the network tree view. Additionally,
you may have only four Control Panel panes launched at the same time.

When you launch the Control Panel it automatically requests real-time data for each tab in the
pane; you may also request historical data for any tab in the pane using the Historical or Get Past
tools at the top of each tab.

The Control Panel is organized into the following tabs:

• General – contains configuration information organized into functional areas, and a

real-time summary in the lower-left corner that updates in real-time as long as you keep
the pane open.
• Events/Conditions – shows events and conditions in real-time or for the specified time
period. When you re-submit requests, you may select only events or only conditions by
selecting the appropriate entry in the “List” drop-down box.
• SATCOM – Identical to the individual SATCOM pane, except this pane shows only the
graph, not the raw data behind it.
• Mesh UCP – Identical to the Mesh UCP tab on the SATCOM graph. (See “Mesh UCP
Tab” on page 86.)
• IP Traffic – shows IP statistics on the downstream and/or upstream for this remote.
• SAT Traffic – shows satellite traffic statistics on the down/up for this remote.
• Probe – a Probe pane for this remote.
• Remote Status and UCP Info – these two tabs are not tied to the Control Panel’s
SATCOM display. They provide a means for retrieving these messages over a longer
period of time than can be shown in the SATCOM graph. A real-time/historical display
shows raw UCP and Remote Status information. This display allows you to request up
to one week of UCP and Remote Status messages.
• Latency – a latency pane for this remote.
• QoS – displays the current QoS profile settings for this remote.

Below are two examples of the many tabs of information accessible from a remote’s control panel.

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4.9 Connecting to Network Elements
You can access the Connect option from the Action section of any of the following elements’
menus:

• Protocol Processor
• Blade
• Line Card
• Remote (also accessible from a remote’s Probe dialog box)
The Connect command opens a PuTTY telnet session to the selected element for detailed
anomaly investigation. Please contact iDirect’s Technical Assistance Center for further
information on using system consoles.

Examining IP Routing and HDLC Information on Remotes

You can view the following IP Routing and HDLC information after connecting to a remote:

• The IP routing table currently loaded on the remote

• MAC and IP addresses for all remotes in the remote’s inroute group.
To examine this data on a remote, follow these steps:

Step 1 Right-click the remote in the iMonitor network tree and select Connect from
the context menu.

Step 2 When the PuTTY window appears, log in with Username: admin.

Step 3 You can enter the following commands to view the IP and HDLC
information:*

• ip table displays the IP routing table on the remote. In the Flags

column for any remote IP address:
• An S+ indicates star routing (i.e., all transmissions pass through the
hub).
• An M+ indicates that mesh routing is in effect between this remote
and other mesh remotes in the inroute group.
• rmtarp displays the MAC and IP addresses for all remotes in this
remote’s inroute group. This does not include the remote you are
connected to.
• ll hdlc shows the HDLC address of this remote.

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 These commands are illustrated in the example below.

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4.10 Monitoring Your Bandwidth with SkyMonitor
SkyMonitor is an iDirect digital spectrum analyzer that is fully integrated with the NMS. You can
use a SkyMonitor unit to view your iDirect carriers, or to view other carriers present at your hub.
Each SkyMonitor unit has eight RF ports, each of which can be configured in iBuilder to monitor
one or more L-band carriers or a specific area of the spectrum.

You can connect one or more SkyMonitor spectrum analyzers to your hub LAN using standard
Ethernet connections. In addition, a single iDirect Global NMS can connect to multiple SkyMonitor
units at multiple hub locations. Each unit can operate using either an internal reference clock or
an external 10 MHz reference signal. For details on SkyMonitor installation, see the iDirect
SkyMonitor 1880 Spectrum Analyzer Installation and Safety Manual.

SkyMonitor is a licensed feature. If you plan to add SkyMonitor

NOTE units to your networks, please contact the iDirect Technical
Assistance Center (TAC).

You can launch SkyMonitor from the iMonitor network tree either by right-clicking the SkyMonitor
unit itself, or by selecting a line card carrier that you have associated with a SkyMonitor port in
iBuilder. If in iBuilder you configured a port for a specific iDirect carrier, then when you right-click
the line card for that carrier and launch SkyMonitor, SkyMonitor will automatically display the
bandwidth defined for that carrier. If you launch SkyMonitor by right-clicking the SkyMonitor unit,
the ports will be automatically tuned to the center frequency that you configured for each port. For
details on configuring SkyMonitor units in iBuilder, see the iBuilder User Guide.

4.10.1 Viewing the Spectrum with SkyMonitor

Follow these steps to view the iDirect carriers or SkyMonitor ports as configured in iBuilder.

Step 1 To view an iDirect carrier, right-click the line card that is transmitting or
receiving the carrier; then select Spectrum Monitor–Tx or Spectrum
Monitor–Rx from the menu. This will launch SkyMonitor and automatically
select the RF port associated with the carrier.

As an alternative, you can right-click the SkyMonitor unit in the tree and
select Spectrum Monitor. This will launch SkyMonitor and select RF port 1
by default.

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Figure 4-4 shows the initial SkyMonitor view. The current settings (Center Freq., Span, etc.) are
displayed in the monitor pane on the left.

Figure 4-4: SkyMonitor Initial View

Step 2 The keypad on the right allows you to temporarily change the RF port
settings, capture data, recall captures, and save screen images. These
functions are discussed in detail later in this section.

Step 3 You can select a new SkyMonitor port by clicking a port number in the RF
Port section of the keypad. (If you launched SkyMonitor from a line card,
the RF port configured for the carrier is automatically selected.)

Step 4 Click the Start button to begin monitoring your preconfigured carrier or RF
port. Figure 4-5 shows an iDirect carrier being monitored by a SkyMonitor
spectrum analyzer.

Step 5 Click the Stop button if you want to stop monitoring the bandwidth and clear
the display.

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 Figure 4-5: Monitoring a Carrier with SkyMonitor

You can view the exact frequency and amplitude of any point on
NOTE the monitor by positioning your cursor over that point on the
screen.

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4.10.2 Changing the SkyMonitor Settings
SkyMonitor displays the iBuilder configuration for the carrier or RF port by default. However, you
can use the spectrum analyzer keypad to temporarily change these settings during your
SkyMonitor session. However, you must make any permanent configuration changes in iBuilder.
The Frequency, Span, and Amplitude buttons all have associated sub-function buttons. The sub-
function buttons appear in the upper-left portion of the keypad when you click one of these main
buttons. The results of clicking Frequency, Span, and Amplitude are shown in Figure 4-6.

Figure 4-6: SkyMonitor Function Buttons

Operate the keypad buttons as you would the buttons on a typical spectrum analyzer. As an
example, if you want to temporarily change the Center Frequency to be different from the iBuilder
configuration, follow these steps:

Step 1 Click the Frequency button to view the sub-function buttons. (See Figure 4-
6.)

Step 2 Click the Center Frequency button.

Step 3 Using the Data section of the keypad, click the number buttons to enter the
value of the new center frequency. As you enter the data, it is displayed in
the monitor pane on the left side of the window. You can click the up and
down arrow buttons to increment or decrement the last digit you entered.
You can also click the minus sign button (-) to clear the previously-entered
digit.

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 Step 4 Click the appropriate button for the units you are entering (GHz, MHz, KHz
or Hz). Once you select the units, the value displayed at the bottom of the
screen will change to the new center frequency, converted to KHz.

Step 5 If you want to restore the iBuilder configuration, click the Preset button in
the Instrument State section of the keypad.

4.10.3 Capturing and Recalling SkyMonitor Data

SkyMonitor allows you to:

• Save the current spectrum analyzer data to a file on the NMS server
• Periodically save the spectrum analyzer data to a file at five minute intervals
• Recall saved data files for viewing in SkyMonitor
• Copy a bitmap image of the monitor pane to your computer clipboard for pasting into
an application such as MS Word.
Saving SkyMonitor Data
To save the current SkyMonitor data, or to initiate a background task to capture data at intervals
over a set period, follow these steps.

Step 1 Click the Save button in the Instrument State area of the SkyMonitor keypad.
This allows you to view the Copy Bitmap, Save Data, and Save Continuous
buttons.

Step 2 If you want to save the current data, click the Save Data button. This will
write the spectrum analyzer data to a file on your NMS server.

Step 3 To capture data at five minute intervals over a set time period:

a Click the Capture Time button.

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 b In the Data area of the keypad, enter the time period over which you want
to collect data and click the Min or Sec button.

c Click the Save Continuous button. Data will be saved to a single capture file
on the NMS server every five minutes for the specified time period.

Recalling and Viewing SkyMonitor Data

Follow these steps to recall and view saved SkyMonitor data files:

Step 1 If you are currently monitoring the spectrum, click the Stop button below the
monitor pane. (See Figure 4-5 on page 102.)

Step 2 In the Instrument State area of the SkyMonitor keypad, click the Recall
button to display the Select Time Range dialog box.

Step 3 Select a time range within which to search for data files by entering a Start
Time and End Time or by adjusting the slider. Then click OK to view the
Select Sky Data to Recall dialog box. (The maximum time range you can
enter is one week.)

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Step 4 In the Select Sky Data to Recall dialog box, select the data you want to recall
and click OK. The dialog box shows the Center Frequency and Timestamp
of each data file. For iDirect carriers, the line card Name is also displayed.

Step 5 If the file you selected contains a continuous capture, you can click the Prev
and Next buttons to sequentially display the captured data.

Step 6 Click the Stop button when you want to stop viewing the data file.

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Capturing an Image of the SkyMonitor Display
Follow these steps to copy a bitmap image in SkyMonitor’s monitor pane to your computer
clipboard and paste into an application such as MS Word.

Step 1 Click the Save button in the Instrument State area of the SkyMonitor keypad.
This allows you to view the Copy Bitmap, Save Data, and Save Continuous
buttons.

Step 2 Click the Copy Bitmap button. This copies the image on the monitor pane to
the computer’s clipboard.

Step 3 Open the application into which you want to past the image.

Step 4 Select the paste function of the application, or type Ctrl + V to paste the
image into the application.

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5 IP, SAT and Mesh Traffic Graphs

This section discusses the IP, Satellite, and Mesh Traffic graphs. It also describes the statistics
on which the various graphs are based.

5.1 IP Statistics
iMonitor’s IP statistics display shows you IP traffic in both downstream and upstream directions
for any number of remotes in your networks. When you select multiple remotes, by choosing IP
Stats from an intermediate network node, iMonitor displays the aggregate total of all the remotes
you selected.

The IP Stats display is available from the following nodes in the network tree view:

• Network
• Inroute Group
• Individual Remotes

5.2 SAT Statistics

The SAT Stats display can be launched from the same locations as the IP Stats display, but
displays statistics differently. The following fields represent SAT bytes:

• Reliable bytes sent to and received from remotes (e.g. TCP traffic)
• Unreliable bytes sent to and received from remotes (e.g. UDP traffic)
• Overhead bytes sent to and received from remotes (e.g. TDMA protocol header bytes)
• On the downstream only, multicast and broadcast bytes sent to remotes.
The SAT stats display also resolves a limitation with the previous IP Stats-only display: SAT traffic
now accurately represents compressed RTP (CRTP) voice traffic.

5.3 IP Statistics vs. SAT Statistics

Bandwidth usage statistics are divided into two different displays in iMonitor, each representing
different classes of usage: over-the-air bytes and upstream LAN bytes.

To understand why this is necessary, let’s first review the TCP acceleration process. When the
PP accelerates TCP traffic on the downstream, it sends acknowledgements to the sending server
at the same time it queues the traffic for transmission to the remote. When the receiving client
actually receives the data and acknowledges it, the remote no longer needs to send the
acknowledgement; it has already been sent by the protocol processor.

This technique allows TCP traffic to flow at line rate across the satellite, and it minimizes the
number of TCP ACKs that are transmitted over the air. Because of this, the amount of traffic
flowing upstream from the protocol processor (eth0 to the Internet) differs from the amount of
traffic flowing across the satellite. A large TCP download, for example, can cause significant traffic

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to flow out of the upstream interface of the protocol processor, even though little of that traffic is
transmitted across the satellite.

The IP Stats display shows the traffic on the upstream side of protocol processor while SAT Stats
display shows the traffic on the tunnel side of the protocol processor. This is illustrated in Figure
5-1.

Due to the different collection points for IP and SAT statistics, the
IP Stats display may show more upstream traffic than is actually
NOTE possible; i.e., greater than the channel rate or configured rate
limit. This is normal and not a cause for concern.

To Internet
Upstream Lan Segment

Upstream Router
Tunnel Lan Segment

To Protocol
To line cards, satellite, remotes
Internet Processor

IP Traffic Stats Collected Here SAT Traffic Stats Collected Here

Figure 5-1: Collection Points for IP Usage Statistics

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5.4 SAT Traffic Graph
SAT (satellite) traffic information can be selected from:

• networks
• inroute groups
• remotes
To view the satellite traffic graph, follow the directions below:

Step 1 Right-click a network, an inroute group or a remote.

Step 2 Click SAT Traffic Graph. The Select Items dialog box appears.

Step 3 Select the remote for which you want to view information. Notice that all but
the Remotes section are unavailable for selection.

Step 4 Click either Historical or Get Past, or OK to view real-time.

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 You may specify a historical time range or Get Past value from the
parameters dialog. The maximum interval you can select is 12 hours. The
farther you go back in time, less granularity will be available from the
database due to archive consolidation.

If you retrieve more than 30 minutes of data, the display will be easier to
read if you select the Minutes or Hours interval from the context menu.

a If you select Historical, click Time Range. The Select Time Range dialog box
appears (see below). If desired, click the ellipses next to the Start and End
times to set the time via the graphical clock display. If you selected Get Past,
see Step b.

b If you selected Get Past, the Get Past drop-down list appears. Select an
interval of time.

Step 5 Click OK.

Step 6 The SAT Traffic pane appears with three tabs. Below are examples of the
SAT Traffic tab and the SAT Downstream tab. The SAT Upstream tab has the
same format as the downstream, but displays data regarding the upstream
path.

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5.5 IP Traffic Graph
IP traffic information can be selected from:

• networks
• inroute groups
• remotes
To view the IP traffic graph, follow the directions below:

Step 1 Right-click a network, inroute group, or remote.

Step 2 Click IP Traffic Graph. The Select Items dialog box appears.

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Step 3 Select the remote for which you want to view information. Notice that all but
the Remotes section are unavailable for selection.

Step 4 Click either Historical or Get Past, or OK to view real-time.

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 a If you select Historical, click Time Range. The Select Time Range dialog box
appears (see below). If desired, click the ellipses next to the Start and End
times to set the time via the graphical clock display. If you selected Get Past,
see Step b.

b If you selected Get Past, the Get Past drop-down list appears. Select an
interval of time.

Step 5 Click OK.

Step 6 The IP Traffic Stats pane appears, as shown below. Refer to the Archive
Database Tables, discussed on page 151 for information on these results.

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5.6 Viewing Options
To choose among various display options on the graph, click IP Stats or SAT Stats from the main
menu or right-click inside the window to view the menu below.

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The menu options are described below:

• Show Legend – displays a color-coded legend of the graph contents

• Show Parameters – shows a static options section at the top of the pane
• Scroll Lock – locks the upstream and downstream scroll bars together after a historical
query
• Direction – allows you to view upstream traffic, downstream traffic, or both
• Units – switches between kilobits per second and kilobytes per second
• Interval – switches between the following:
• Seconds (3 minutes total)
• Minutes (1 hour total, averaged over 1 minute)
• Hours (12 hours total, averaged over 10 minutes)
• Activity – allows you to selectively choose which IP types to display, or to show the
total IP traffic as a single graph line
• Rate Limits – displays configured upstream and downstream rate limits. This selection
only exists for Satellite Traffic statistics; it does not exist in the IP Traffic statistics
menu.
• Copy – copies the current graph display to your PC’s clipboard
• Properties – allows to you modify the default color settings

5.7 Bandwidth Usage

This display is useful as an at-a-glance display of the total kbps traffic in both directions for a
selected group of remotes. The information is shown in real-time only in a multi-column list. You
can sort each column in ascending or descending order.

The Bandwidth Usage display can be selected from:

• Networks
• Inroute Groups
To view the bandwidth usage, follow the directions below:

Step 1 Right-click a network or inroute group.

Step 2 Click Bandwidth Usage. The Select Remote Devices dialog box appears

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Step 3 Make the appropriate selections, and click OK. The Bandwidth Usage
results pane appears, as shown below.

Figure 5-2: Real-Time Bandwidth Usage Display

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5.8 Mesh Statistics
The NMS collects mesh traffic statistics to and from remotes, saves it in the data archive, and
provides it to iMonitor for real-time and historical displays. You can view the following mesh traffic
statistics:

• Reliable bytes sent to and received from remotes on mesh inroutes (e.g. TCP traffic)
• Unreliable bytes sent to and received from remotes on mesh inroutes (e.g. UDP traffic)
• Overhead bytes sent to and received from remotes on mesh inroutes (e.g. TDMA
protocol header bytes)
Mesh statistics refer only to single-hop traffic between mesh remotes. In a typical network
configuration, TCP traffic between remotes will be routed through the hub. In that case, the reliable
byte count will be zero. However, if TCP acceleration is turned off for a mesh inroute group, then
both reliable (TCP) and unreliable (UDP) traffic between mesh remotes will be single hop traffic
and will be counted in these statistics.

When viewing stats for mesh-enabled remotes, it’s important to keep the following facts in mind:

• Remote-to-remote traffic traverses the satellite on the TDMA inroute.

• When viewing the SAT traffic graph, the upstream graph includes any remote-to-
remote mesh traffic.
• The Mesh traffic graph includes any remote-to-remote mesh traffic and remote-to-hub
traffic. The displays for transmitted and received traffic do not include non-mesh traffic.
That is, traffic from remotes destined for an upstream host is not included on the
display.
• Mesh traffic is never displayed on the IP traffic graph, since this display represents
traffic upstream from the protocol processor.
You may use the Mesh IP statistics to determine if there is mesh traffic loss on the link. In order
to do this, you must select all mesh remotes for the display. When you do this, the transmitted kbps
and received kbps should be identical. If they are not identical, it is likely there is packet loss
across the mesh link.

Figure 5-3 shows the various collection points for Mesh, SAT, and IP statistics.

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 Mesh Traffic Stats Collected Here

To Internet
Remote 1

Upstream Router
Upstream Lan Segment

Tunnel Lan Segment

Remote 2

Protocol
Processor

Remote 3

IP Traffic Stats Collected Here SAT Traffic Stats Collected Here

Figure 5-3: Collection Points for Mesh, SAT, and IP Statistics

5.8.1 Mesh Traffic Graph

Mesh traffic information can be selected for the following network elements:

• networks
• inroute groups
• remotes
To view the mesh traffic graph, follow the directions below:

Step 1 Right-click a network, an inroute group or a remote.

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Step 2 Click Mesh Traffic Graph. The Select Items dialog box appears.

Step 3 Select the remote or remotes for which you want to view information. Notice
that all but the Remotes section of the dialog box are unavailable for
selection.

Step 4 Click either Historical or Get Past; or click OK to view real-time statistics.

You may specify a historical time range or Get Past value from the
parameters dialog. The maximum interval you can select is 12 hours. The
farther you go back in time, less granularity will be available from the
database due to archive consolidation.

If you retrieve more than 30 minutes of data, the display will be easier to
read if you select the Minutes or Hours interval from the context menu.

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 a If you select Historical, click Time Range. The Select Time Range dialog box
appears (see below). If desired, click the ellipses next to the Start and End
times to set the time via the graphical clock display. If you selected Get Past,
see Step b.

b If you selected Get Past, the Get Past drop-down list appears. Select an
interval of time.

Step 5 Click OK.

Step 6 The Mesh Traffic pane appears with three tabs. Below are examples of the
Mesh Traffic tab and the Mesh Receive tab. The Mesh Transmit tab has the

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 same format as the Mesh Receive tab but displays data regarding the
transmitted traffic.

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Step 7 If you right-click inside the frame and click Show Parameters from the
context menu, you can select what you want to see in the graph from the
options shown below.

Note that the Rate Limits (Downstream Max and Upstream Max) are only
selectable if you have configured rate limits on the QoS tab of the selected
remotes.

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6 Reporting on Networks

iMonitor provides four built-in reports that allow you to generate long-term reports from the
statistics archive. Each is discussed in detail below.

6.1 Reports
Reports can be generated from:

• networks
• inroute groups
• remotes
• TDMA line cards
• iSCPC line cards
On each of these elements, you can generate all of the following reports:

• SAT Long Term Bandwidth Usage

• IP Long Term Bandwidth Usage
• Mesh Long Term Bandwidth Usage
• Remote Availability
• Line Card Availability

6.1.1 Long-Term Bandwidth Usage Report

Long-term bandwidth usage reports can be generated in iMonitor, providing you with a fast and
flexible way to show bandwidth utilization. On the Average Tab of the SAT or Mesh Long Term
Bandwidth Usage remport, a percent-of-max-capacity figure is also calculated, which you can use
to quantify unused bandwidth margin on both the upstream and downstream channels. At each
level of the Tree, you can report on all remotes below the element you have selected.

6.1.2 IP, SAT and Mesh Long Term Bandwidth Usage Reports
To generate, view, save, or print the SAT Long Term Bandwidth Usage report, follow the directions
below:

Step 1 Right-click a network, inroute group, or remote.

Step 2 Select IP Long Term Bandwidth Usage, SAT Long Term Bandwidth Usage or
Mesh Long Term Bandwidth Usage. The Long Term Bandwidth Usage
Parameters dialog box appears.

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Step 3 Make the appropriate selections, as described below:

Step 4 In Remote Devices, select the check boxes of the remote devices for which
you want to generate reports.

Step 5 When the Total All Remotes box is selected, iMonitor will add all the
values together for all of the selected remotes. If clear, iMonitor reports on
each remote individually.

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Step 6 In Direction, select Downstream, Upstream, or Both to tell iMonitor
whether to report on downstream usage, upstream usage, or usage in both
directions.

Step 7 In IP Type, SAT Type or Mesh Type, select one or more protocol types that
you would like in your report, or select None to report only on total traffic,
not broken down by protocol. Selecting the All check box selects all of the
protocol type boxes and results in a complete listing of the individual values
for each protocol type. Select Total Traffic to sum the columns of IP traffic
in a Grand Total.

Step 8 In Time Range select the time period for your report. By default, you can
select up to six months in the past; values older than this are not saved by
the back-end server. If you wish to save IP statistics for longer than six
months, please contact iDirect’s Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

In Time Range, enter the start date by selecting a day, month, and year
from the calendar drop-down box. You can enter time values using the text
boxes, or by clicking the Details button to display the clock tool.

To specify an hour value, click the hour hand, and then click the hour. To
select a minute value, use the same technique, but click the minute hand
instead. You can also double-click anywhere on the dial to move both
hands to that location.

This method for specifying time is available from all historical

NOTE query parameters panes.

Step 9 The Interval box allows you to specify the time period represented by each
message returned from the server. This feature allows you to show more
or less granularity in the results depending on the type of report you want.

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 In general, raw data is less informative for long-term reporting than data
consolidated to represent larger time periods.

The minimum interval available will vary depending on the Start Time you
specify for your report. As usage data ages, the NMS server automatically
consolidates records for disk space, so the higher-granularity intervals may
not be available if your Start Time value is far in the past. iMonitor
automatically chooses the highest-granularity interval for you. For more
information on how the NMS server consolidates usage records see
Appendix A “Accessing the NMS Statistics Archive” on page 147.

Step 10 In the Sort By list, specify a sort to initially sort the values for the report.
Once the report is generated you can re-sort at any time by clicking on the
appropriate column heading.

Step 11 When you have finished specifying your desired run-time parameters, click
OK to run the report. After the server has retrieved the data, consolidated
it into your chosen interval, and delivered it to your client, a separate pane
appears showing the results of the report.

Results
The report is organized into Totals and Averages tabs. The Totals tab shows total kilobytes for
each message returned from the server in the interval that you selected. There is a total value at
the end of each row, and a grand total at the bottom of each column. The Averages tab shows the
calculated kilobits per second value for each message.

Totals Tab
Figure 6-1 shows an example of the Totals tab of the Sat Long-Term Bandwidth Report. In this
example, the user chose to total all remotes, and to not break out the report by IP protocol type.
If the user had chosen to report individual IP protocols, each supported protocol would have
appeared in its own column.

Averages Tab
Figure 6-2 shows the same report as Figure 6-1, but with the Averages tab selected. As with the
Totals tab, only the averages for the total IP traffic are calculated, since the user chose to not break
out the data by individual IP protocol type.

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 Figure 6-1: SAT Long Term Bandwidth Usage Report

Step 12 Click Averages to view the average values for each parameter for the period
of time the report covers.

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 Figure 6-2: IP Long Term Bandwidth Usage Report

6.1.2.1 Interpreting the Report

Percentage of Channel Capacity
In addition to the kbps value, the averages tab contains the percentage of the maximum channel
capacity on your upstream and/or downstream channels for the interval chosen. The values in
these two columns will give you a general idea of the bandwidth margin you have on your
upstream and downstream. The values are estimates only; the actual channel capacities may be
slightly higher or lower depending on a number of factors, such as the number of remotes in the
network, whether or not the Download Distributer is turned on, etc. However, the values are
accurate enough to tell you when you should consider adding additional bandwidth to a particular
channel.

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For the downstream, we take 2.5% off the top for overhead. Overhead includes HDLC framing,
timeplans, UCP commands, etc. The theoretical maximum for a downstream with a 2 Mbps
information rate would be 2 * .975 = 1.95 Mbps.For the upstream, we use the following calculation
to determine the theoretical maximum in bits per second:

(bytes per slot)*(8 bits per byte)*(slots per frame)*(1000/frame_len)

In the first clause, the byte count per slot does NOT include our internal overhead. Additionally,
this calculation removes unique word and guard band overhead. In a typical network configuration
with small FEC blocks, a 658 kbps information rate, a 125 ms frame, and 109 traffic slots, the
theoretical maximum would be as follows:

(70 bytes per slot)*8*(109 slots)*(1000/125)= 488320 bps = 488.320 kbps

The upstream theoretical maximum is an estimate only; the actual maximum will vary depending
on a number of factors, such as the number of remotes in the network, the minimum data rate for
each remote, and IP packet sizes.

Keep in mind that the larger your interval, the lower the percentage will probably be. This is due
to the fact that kbps values are averaged over the entire period of the interval, so spikes in activity
will tend to be hidden in the average value.

6.2 Remote and Line Card Availability Reports

The Remote Availability report and Line Card Availability report allow you to report on the amount
of time a remote or group of remotes was active in the network and able to pass IP traffic. The
availability reports also includes a count of the number of times a remote or line card was out-of-
network during the reporting period.

This report is available from the following levels of the network tree view:

• Network
• Inroute Groups
• Individual Remotes
• Individual Line Cards
This example explains how to view the Remote Availability report. You can perfrom similar steps
to view the Line Card Availability report.

To generate, view, save, or print the Remote Availability report, follow the directions below:

Step 1 Right-click a network, inroute group, or remote.

Step 2 Select Remote Availability. The Select Remote Devices dialog box appears

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 Step 3 Make the appropriate selections, and click OK. The Remote Availability
report appears, as shown below.

Specify the devices on which you want to report and the time period, and click OK.

The default time period is one week, but you can specify any arbitrary time period. By default, you
can specify a time period up to two months in the past.

An example report is shown below. For each remote you selected, the report displays the
percentage of the time period the device was up and down, and the total number of hours during
the time period the device was up and down. “Up” refers to the time the remote was able to pass
traffic, and “Down” refers to the time the remote was unable to pass traffic due to either a Layer 2
or Layer 3 Alarm being active (or both). The last line of the report shows the average up/down
hours and percent of all the devices for which you generated the report.

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7 Monitoring Remotes Using the Geographic Map

You can view your teleport and all remotes in your networks on iMonitor’s Geographic Map. These
elements are positioned on the map according to their current geographic locations. A remote is
represented by a green, yellow, or red icon, depending on its real-time state. You can interact with
the map to zoom, pan, select remotes for further operations, toggle labels and elevation, and
perform other useful functions.

You must be logged on as a Super User to use the Geographic

NOTE Map in iMonitor. See the iBuilder User Guide for information on
configuring user account privileges.

7.1 Launching the Geographic Map

To launch the geographic map:

Step 1 Right-click a Teleport, a Network or an Inroute Group in the Network Tree

and select Geographic Map to display the Select Remotes dialog box.

Step 2 In the Remotes area of the Select Remotes dialog box, select the remotes
you want to view on the map. You can use the buttons to select All remotes,
to Clear all remotes, or to select only Active remotes. If you select Historical
and enter a Time Range, the map will be displayed with remote tracking

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 over the selected time. (See section 7.3 “Tracking and Locating Mobile
Remotes” on page 140 for details.)

Step 3 As an alternative to selecting Historical and a Time Range, you can select
a duration from the Get Past drop down menu to display tracking for that
time period up to the present.

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 Step 4 When you have finished making your selections, click Ok to view the
Geographic Map in the main pane of the iMonitor display.

7.2 The Map Toolbar

The Map Toolbar allows you to interact with the map in various ways. To display the toolbar, select
GeoMap Toolbar from the iMonitor View menu.

The toolbar is shown below. It is highlighted whenever one or more Geographic Maps is active.

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The table below describes the functionality of all buttons on the Map Toolbar. Icon names used in
this document are in bold typeface.

Table 7-1: Geographic Map Toolbar Icons and Functions

Toolbar Icon Functionality

Allows you to Zoom In through successive map levels, centered on the current
mid-point of the map.

Allows you to Zoom Out through successive map levels, centered on the current
mid-point of the map.

Allows you to Pan to a new region of the map within the current zoom level by
using the hand cursor to drag the map in any direction. If the entire map is
visible, this function does nothing.

Jumps directly to the Highest Zoom Level from the current zoom level. (The
highest zoom level shows the entire map.)

Allows you to Group Select a number of geographically-adjacent remotes by

dragging a box around a group of remote icons. You can then right-click to
launch the Network Tree menu for operations on multiple remotes. As with other
group-select modes, the parameters dialog box for the selected display is pre-
populated with your selected remotes.

Allows you to click your mouse on a remote icon to determine Details of that
remote. When you click a remote icon, the remote’s name, exact location, and
any current conditions are displayed.

Enables and disables Mobile Remote Tracking. When enabled, mobile

remotes that move within the network leave a trail on the map indicating where
they have been.
The Clear Track button clears the trails of mobile remotes from the map that
result when Mobile Remote Tracking is enabled. This button does not disable
Mobile Tracking.

The Toggle Elevations button turns on or off elevation measurements and

contours on the map display. Elevations are available only on lower zoom levels.

The Map Labels button turns on or off the name display for map features such
as cities, towns, rivers, ports, and highway route numbers. The labels displayed
vary with zoom level.

This button causes remotes to be displayed as Small Icons on the map.

This button causes remotes to be displayed as Medium Icons on the map.

This button causes remotes to be displayed as Large Icons on the map.

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 Table 7-1: Geographic Map Toolbar Icons and Functions (Continued)

Toolbar Icon Functionality

When enabled, the Circle Remote Images button causes the map to display a
shadow or outline around each remote icon. This function is useful when
remotes are clustered, or when elevation or label data obscures the remote
icons.
When enabled, the Flash Remote Images button causes all remote icons to
flash continuously. This feature allows you to quickly identify all remotes in a
specific network or inroute group. It is especially useful at higher zoom levels.

When the Filter on Alarms button is selected, remotes with alarm status are
visible on the map.

When the Filter on Warnings button is selected, remotes with warning status
are visible on the map.

When the Filter on Mesh Alarms button is selected, remotes with mesh alarm
status are visible on the map.

When the Filter on OK button is selected, remotes with OK status are visible on
the map.

When the Filter on Elsewhere button is selected, roaming remotes with

elsewhere status for the network being monitored are visible on the map.

When the Filter on Offline button is selected, remotes with offline status are
visible on the map.

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7.3 Tracking and Locating Mobile Remotes
Stationary remotes are placed on the map during initialization when their geographic locations are
stored in the NMS database. Mobile remotes, however, cannot be placed correctly until they report
their locations to iMonitor.

By default, the map shows all mobile remotes in the same location: 0 degrees latitude and 0
longitude. To show your mobile remotes in the current, correct location, select the Mobile Remote
Tracking button on the Map Toolbar. As the remotes transmit their geographic coordinates to the
NMS, iMonitor places the remotes on the map in their reported locations.

Mobile remote tracking also traces the location history of each mobile remote in real time by
leaving a grey ghost image of the remote whenever its reported location changes. In the figure
below, the green icon just off the coast of Russia is the current location of the remote. The grey
trail traces its movement over time.

It is not possible to track Secure Mobile Remotes. By design,

NOTE these units do not report their geographic locations to the hub.

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Enabling Remote Tracking and Clearing Remote Tracks
To turn on Remote Tracking, select the Mobile Remote Tracking button on the Geographic Map
Toolbar. iMonitor will update the map with your remotes’ new locations each time they report their
positions to the NMS. Past positions will be indicated by trails of grey icons on the map. To clear
the trails for your remotes from the map, select the Clear Tracks button on the toolbar.

Determining a Remote’s Current Location and State

When tracking your remotes, you can determine a remote’s current location and state as follows:

Step 1 Select the Details button on the Geographic Map toolbar.

Step 2 Click the icon representing the remote on the map. An Information Message
will display the remote’s name, it’s current position, and any conditions
associated with the remote.

Determining a Remote’s Past Locations at Specific Times

You can also determine the past locations of a remote at exact times.

Step 1 Select the Details button on the Geographic Map toolbar.

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 Step 2 Click any of the grey icons in the trail of a remote. An Information Message
will display the name of the remote along with its position and the time of
day when its location corresponded to the grey icon you selected.

7.4 Using the Map to Select from the Network Tree Menu
You can use the Geographic Map to display the remote Network Tree submenu and make menu
selections for one or more remotes.

Selecting from the Remote Submenu for a Single Remote

If you hold the mouse pointer over a remote icon and right-click, the Tree submenu for remotes is
displayed. You can then select an iMonitor operation from the remote menu. The remote you are
pointing to will be pre-selected for the operation. This is identical to right-clicking the remote in the
Network Tree View.

To use the Geographic Map to display the Network Tree menu for a single remote:

Step 1 Select the Details button on the Geographic Map toolbar.

Step 2 Place the cursor over the icon representing the remote on the map. (Do not
click the remote.)

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 Step 3 Right-click to display the remote submenu. When you select an operation
from the menu, iMonitor will display the results with the remote pre-
selected.

Selecting from the Remote Submenu for Multiple Remotes

If you right-click after selecting a group of geographically-adjacent remotes on the map, then all of
those remotes will be pre-selected when the parameters dialog box is displayed.

To use the Geographic Map to select an operation for multiple remotes:

Step 1 Select the Group Select button on the Geographic Map toolbar.

Step 2 On the map, drag a box around the group of remotes you want to select.

Step 3 Right click with the cursor over the selected group of remotes and select
from the remote submenu. iMonitor will display the parameters dialog box
with the all remotes in the group pre-selected. The figure below shows the

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 results of selecting seven remotes on the map, and then selecting Network
Data Snapshot from the menu.

7.5 Geographic Map Filtering Based on Remote Status

By default, all remotes are visible on the geographic map. However, you can set filters to view or
hide remotes on the map based on the real-time status of the remotes in the network. When a
remote filter is selected, all remotes with that status are displayed. When a filter is not selected,
remotes with that status become invisible.

If the status of a remote changes so that the remote status no

longer matches a selected filter, the remote will disappear from
NOTE the map. Similarly, if a remote that was not visible due to filtering
changes to a visible status, the remote will appear on the map.

The following criteria can be applied when filtering Remotes on the geographic map:

• Show all remotes (no filtering)

• Show or hide remotes with Alarm status
• Show or hide remotes with Warning status
• Show or hide remotes with Mesh Alarm status
• Show or hide remotes with OK status
• Show or hide remotes with Elsewhere status (See note below.)
• Show or hide remotes with Offline status
• Hide all remotes

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 Remotes with Elsewhere status are roaming remotes that are
configured in the network being monitored, but that have moved
NOTE to another network. An icon for a remote with Elsewhere status
reflects the last position in which that remote was displayed on
the geographic map prior to leaving the network.

Filters can be set either by selecting icons on the geographic map toolbar, or by right-clicking in
the map pane and using the filter menu. The following two sections describe these options.

Applying Filters Using the Geographic Map Toolbar

Clicking a filter icon on the map toolbar toggles the associated remote status between visible and
invisible. When a filter icon is selected, remotes with that status are visible on the map. When a
filter icon is cleared, remotes with that status are not displayed. By default, all filter icons are
selected, making all remotes visible on the map. With the settings shown in the figure below, only
remotes with Alarm status or Warning status are displayed on the map. (See Section 7.2 “The Map
Toolbar” on page 137 for filter icon definitions.)

Applying Filters Using the Filter Menu

To filter on remote status using the geographic map filter menu:

Step 1 Right-click anywhere in the geographic map pane where no remotes are
present to display the menu. By default, all remotes are visible, regardless
of status.

Step 2 Select or clear the check marks in the menu to choose the remotes you
want to view on the map. You can select any combination of status filters.

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 With the settings shown in the figure below, only remotes with Alarm or
Warning status are visible on the map.

Selecting All from the filter menu selects all menu items.
NOTE Selecting None clears all selections. These are quick methods for
toggling all geographic map filtering on or off.

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Appendix A Accessing the NMS Statistics Archive

Many of our customers have requested specific reports on various aspects of their network
behavior, ranging from IP traffic activity to system uptime to satellite link behavior. iMonitor allows
users to retrieve historical data and populate a number of raw and graphical displays on both
firmware versions and per-remote uptime via web-based tools. iMonitor also provides an easier
way of retrieving long-term bandwidth usage statistics for network usage profiling.

iDirect also provides limited support for read-only direct archive access. This section discusses
how this is done and provides information about specific tables in the archive database.

The intended audience for this appendix is a technical person

NOTE who has experience developing relational database applications,
preferably using ODBC.

A.1 Optimization of the Statistics Archive

The NMS employs the techniques described in this section in order to store the archive data
efficiently and to minimize data retrieval time.

A.1.1 Optimized NMS Statistics Archive Storage

In order to efficiently store the data, the statistics archive eliminates or consolidates certain
records according to the following rules:

• All-zero IP Stats and SAT Stats are not logged to the archive. This happens for
remotes that are out-of-network. The long-term bandwidth reports and usage displays
handle missing messages automatically. Note: if you access the stats archive using
ODBC, you may have to modify your reporting software to handle gaps in the data.
• Latency measurements below a default threshold of 800 msec are not logged to the
archive; only measurement times above this value are logged.
• Consecutive latency time-outs are written to a single entry in the database along with
a count. For example, 10 consecutive latency time-outs are written as a single
database record with a count of -10.
• Consecutive SWEEP messages are written to a single entry in the database along with
a count. For example, 10 consecutive SWEEPs are written as a single database record
with a count of 10.
All of these settings can be overridden or modified if necessary. Please contact iDirect’s
Technical Assistance Center for help changing the default archive behavior.

A.1.2 Optimized NMS Statistics Archive Lookup

Large historical requests are broken into multiple segments that are processed separately. This
results in better memory utilization on the server and improved response time in the GUI.

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A.1.3 Archive Consolidation
To prevent filling up the NMS server’s hard disk, a consolidation process runs every night at
approximately midnight by default. Using rules defined in the config database, it runs through all
tables in the archive database and either deletes old records or collects multiple records together
into a single record.

Consolidation rules govern how long data is saved, and are given default values when your
configuration database is created. These defaults are designed to allow your networks to grow
quite large (many hundreds of remotes) without you having to worry about disk space problems.
If you want to modify the default values, please contact iDirect’s Technical Assistance Center
(TAC) at (703) 648-8151 for assistance. The default consolidation values for each table are listed
in Table A-1 on page 151.

A.2 NMS Database Overview

Connecting to the NMS Archive Database with ODBC
All statistical archive information is contained in a MySQL relational database on the primary NMS
server machine. MySQL is an open source database server that is widely praised in the Linux
community for its reliability, speed, and ease-of-use. There are many different books available on
MySQL, and there is a wealth of information online at www.mysql.com.

Obtaining the ODBC Connection Library

MySQL supports access via the Microsoft standard called ODBC (for Open DataBase
Connectivity). The installation of MySQL on your NMS server already contains support for ODBC
connections, so there’s nothing you have to download to from the Internet to enable ODBC access
on the server-side. However, you must download the appropriate ODBC client library from the
MySQL web site. Full details, including an installation and usage manual, are available from
www.mysql.com.

Setting up a Simple ODBC Access Account

As the name implies, access with ODBC is open, i.e. not secure, so we require setting up a
specific read-only MySQL account to restrict access to just the information you need to generate
reports. The details of this user account are typically specific to each customer installation.
However, we have provided instructions here for setting up a generic read-only account.

Step 1 Log in to the NMS server as “root”.

Step 2 Enter the mysql database utility:

mysql
Step 3 At the mysql prompt, type the following command:

mysql> grant SELECT on *.* to <user>@’%’ identified by

“password”;
Replace the string <user> with the user name you want for the account, and
replace the string “password” with the password you want. Note that the

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 double quotes around password and single quotes around the percent sign
are required.

Step 4 Activate the account:

mysql> flush privileges;
Step 5 Exit the mysql utility:
mysql> quit;
The user you just created has the following privileges:

• Can connect from any host.

• Can see all databases.
• Can only read information.
You can further restrict the access privileges on this account, e.g. you can specify connection only
from a specific remote host. If you wish to tailor this account to provide additional security, you
should contact iDirect’s TAC at (703) 648-8151.

Once you have set up the read-only access account, you must connect to the database named
“nrd_archive”. Other connection details are your responsibility. There are a number of database
clients that support ODBC connections, each with their own specific requirements. Unfortunately,
we are unable to provide support for all the different ODBC clients in the marketplace.

A.3 Basic Archive Database Information

Types of NMS Databases and Supported Access
The NMS stores its information in two separate databases. One database, typically called the
“config database”, contains all the configuration information that you define in iBuilder: remotes,
hub line cards, carriers, etc. The other database, called the “archive database”, contains all the
real-time statistical information generated by your networks: IP stats, remote status, conditions,
etc.

iDirect supports read-only access to the archive database only. The configuration database
contains a number of intricate relationships between tables that require a detailed knowledge of
the structure to interpret. This structure usually changes from one release to another to allow
configuration of new data path features, which would further complicate customer access.

Structure Changes between Releases

The structure of the archive database tables has remained relatively static over recent releases.
While we anticipate this to be the case in the future as well, iDirect reserves the right to change
this structure from one release to another to improve the product and to enhance statistical
information about real-time operation. These changes may impact your custom reports, and if so
will require ongoing maintenance by someone on your staff. We will document all changes and
additions to the archive database, but iDirect cannot take responsibility for customer reports that
break due to database structure changes.

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Accessing Remote and Network Names from Configuration Database
There are two exceptions to the restriction on accessing the config database: retrieval of remote
names and network names. Entries in the archive database are keyed to individual remotes by a
unique database ID, and do not contain the name assigned to the remote in iBuilder. To retrieve
the remote’s name, you must reference the appropriate table in the config database with the
unique ID.

Retrieving information based on serial number is not

NOTE recommended – you will lose access to historical data if the
hardware is swapped in the field.

In the archive database, remote unique ids in all tables are stored in the column named
“unique_id”. In the config database, this same ID is stored in a table named “NetModem” in the
column “NetModemId”. The remote name is in the column named “NetModemName”.

A sample SQL query that grabs the remote’s name from a known remote ID might be:

select NetModemName from nms.NetModem where NetModemId = 15;

The config database name is “nms”, and that name must be in your query to tell the MySQL server
which database to look in.

In the archive database, network ids in all tables are stored in the column named “network_id”. In
the config database, this same ID is stored in a table named “Network” in the column named
“NetworkId”. The network name is in the column named “NetworkName”.

A sample SQL query that grabs a remote’s network name from a known network ID might be:

select NetworkName from nms.Network where NetworkId = 1;

Timestamps
All raw data received from network elements is time stamped at the NMS prior to being written to
the database. All timestamp fields in the archive database are Linux time_t values, which
represent the number of seconds since January 1, 1970.

Overview of the Archive Database Tables

The following table contains a list of all the archive database tables, what information each one
contains, and how long the data is saved. Each table is discussed in greater detail later in this
appendix.

For efficiency, archive data is divided into multiple tables for each
data type. Names of tables that contain data are derived from the
base table names shown in Table A-1. For details, see
NOTE Section A.5 “NMS Statistics Archive Database Restructuring” on
page 167. When referring to “tables” in this section, the base
table name is used.

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 Table A-1: Archive Database Tables

Base Table Name Contains Data Saved For

IP stats sent from the protocol
raw_ip_stats 24 hours
processor
raw IP stats consolidated to one record
ip_minute_stats 30 days
per minute
IP minute stats consolidated to one
ip_hour_stats 6 months
record per hour
lat_stats latency measurement 1 week
nms_hub_stats hub line card statistics 1 week
nms_remote_status remote information 1 week
nms_ucp_info uplink control adjustments 1 week
events sent from protocol processors,
event_msg 1 week
hub line cards, and remotes
hub line card and remote state changes
state_change_log 30 days
(conditions raised and lowered)
pp_state_change_log protocol processor state changes 30 days
chassis_state_change_log chassis state changes 30 days
Over-the-air stats sent from the
raw_ota_stats 24 hours
protocol processor
raw ota stats consolidated to one
ota_minute_stats 30 days
record per minute
ota minute stats consolidated to one
ota_hour_stats 6 months
record per hour
Over-the-air multicast stats sent from
raw_otacast_stats 24 hours
the protocol processor
raw otacast stats consolidated to one
otacast_minute_stats 30 days
record per minute
otacast minute stats consolidated to
otacast_hour_stats 6 months
one record per hour
raw_mesh_stats Mesh stats sent from the remote 24 hours
raw mesh stats consolidated to one
mesh_minute_stats 30 days
record per minute
mesh minute stats consolidated to one
mesh_hour_stats 6 months
record per hour

A.4 Database Table Details

The following sections describe each of the archive tables in some detail. For further information,
please contact iDirect’s Technical Assistance Center (TAC) at (703) 648-8151.

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A.4.1 IP Stats Tables
As shown in Table A-1, there are three separate base table types for IP stats, each one containing
records that cover a particular period of time. The ip_minute_stats and ip_hour_stats tables have
all the fields contained in the raw_ip_stats plus additional fields containing maximum and standard
deviation calculations for all IP types. These fields are discussed in more detail later in this section.

IP statistics for all active remotes are calculated on the protocol processor and sent to the NMS
every 5 seconds. After sending a stats message, the protocol processor zeros its counts, so that
every database record contains the delta in activity from the previous record. The protocol
processor continues to send messages to the NMS even if a remote is out-of-network; the counts
for these records contain all zeros.

For convenience, HTTP traffic is broken out separately from TCP

traffic, but the TCP counts include HTTP as well. If you want a
NOTE total count of traffic, do not include the HTTP values in your
addition.

Table A-2: IP Stats Record Format

Column Name Data Type Meaning

timestamp timestamp(14) time_t that the message arrived at the NMS server
t_interval int(10) unsigned interval in seconds that the data covers
network_id smallint(5) unsigned identifies the network
unique_id int(10) unsigned uniquely identifies the remote
modem_sn smallint(5) unsigned remote’s serial number
kilobytes of TCP data received from the remote
rx_tcp_kbyte double
(upstream)
tx_tcp_kbyte double kilobytes of TCP data sent to the remote (downstream)
rx_udp_byte double kilobytes of UDP data received from the remote
tx_udp_kbyte double kilobytes of UDP data sent to the remote
rx_icmp_kbyte double kilobytes of ICMP data received from the remote
tx_icmp_kbyte double kilobytes of ICMP data sent to the remote
rx_igmp_kbyte double kilobytes of IGMPdata received from the remote
tx_igmp_kbyte double kilobytes of IGMP data sent to the remote
rx_http_kbyte double kilobytes of HTTP data received from the remote.
tx_http_kbyte double kilobytes of HTTP data sent to the remote
kilobytes of data from other protocol types received from
rx_other_kbyte double
the remote.
kilobytes of data from other protocol types sent to the
tx_other_kbyte double
remote

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Consolidated IP Stats Tables
The two consolidated tables, ip_minute_stats and ip_hour_stats, contain all the fields in the
raw_ip_stats table plus the additional fields that hold maximum and standard deviation values for
each IP type. Each maximum column indicates the maximum individual measurement of all
records consolidated into this record. Each standard deviation value, calculated using a common
formula, tells you how clustered the consolidated measurements were around the average of all
consolidated data records.

Table A-3: Additional Consolidated IP Stats Table Fields

Column Name Data Type Meaning

The maximum rx_tcp_kbyte value of
rx_tcp_max double the records consolidated into this
record.
tx_tcp_max double As above, for tx_tcp_kbyte
rx_udp_max double As above, for rx_udp_kbyte
tx_udp_max double As above, for tx_udp_kbyte
rx_icmp_max double As above, for rx_icmp_kbyte
tx_icmp_max double As above, for tx_icmp_kbyte
rx_igmp_max double As above, for rx_igmp_kbyte
tx_igmp_max double As above, for tx_igmp_kbyte
rx_http_max double As above, for rx_http_kbyte
tx_http_max double As above, for tx_http_kbyte
rx_other_max double As above, for rx_other_kbyte.
tx_other_max double As above, for tx_other_kbyte.
The standard deviation of all
rx_tcp_stddev float(10,5)
consolidated rx_tcp_kbyte records.
tx_tcp_stddev float(10,5) As above, for tx_tcp_kbyte
rx_udp_stddev float(10,5) As above, for rx_udp_kbyte.
tx_udp_stddev float(10,5) As above, for tx_udp_kbyte.
rx_icmp_stddev float(10,5) As above, for rx_icmp_kbyte
tx_icmp_stddev float(10,5) As above, for tx_icmp_kbyte
rx_igmp_stddev float(10,5) As above, for rx_igmp_kbyte
tx_igmp_stddev float(10,5) As above, for tx_igmp_kbyte
rx_http_stddev float(10,5) As above, for rx_http_kbyte
tx_http_stddev float(10,5) As above, for tx_http_kbyte
rx_other_stddev float(10,5) As above, for rx_other_kbyte
tx_other_stddev float(10,5) As above, for tx_other_kbyte

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Statistics Consolidation Process
Four types of statistics are consolidated by the NMS:

• IP statistics
• Over-the-air statistics
• Over-the-air multicast statistics
• Mesh statistics
The statistics consolidation process is more complicated than for data in other tables. It’s a multi-
step process designed to keep very old data without losing information, and at the same time
optimize disk space usage. As the stats data gets older, multiple individual records are combined
together to form a single record. Using this method, the count of total traffic sent through the
system is maintained as the data ages; all that’s lost is the granularity between shorter periods of
time.

The consolidation process works as follows. Every day, using consolidation parameters from the
config database, the consolidator process performs the following tasks on the each of the four raw
stats tables (default values are used here):

Step 1 Delete all records from the hour stats table older than 4464 hours.

Step 2 Consolidate all records from the minute stats table older than 744 hours into
one record per hour and write that record to the ip_hour_table.

Step 3 Delete all records from the minute stats table older than 744 hours.

Step 4 Consolidate all records from the raw stats table older than 24 hours into one
record per minute and write that record to the minute stats table.

Step 5 Delete all records from the raw stats table older than 24 hours.

A.4.2 Latency Measurements

The lat_stats table contains latency measurement results for all active remotes in the network. To
generate latency information, the NMS latsvr process sends ICMP echo requests to all active
remotes every 5 seconds and measures the round trip time. Queries for individual remotes are
offset in time to prevent a burst of messages every 5 seconds. For remotes that are out-of-
network, the round trip time is -1 or -100. Table A-4 shows the contents of the lat_stats table.

Table A-4: lat_stats Record Format

Column Name Data Type Meaning

timestamp timestamp(14) time_t the round trip time was calculated
network_id smallint(5) unsigned identifies the network
unique_id int(10) unsigned uniquely identifies the remote
modem_sn int(10) unsigned remote’s serial number

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 Table A-4: lat_stats Record Format (Continued)

Column Name Data Type Meaning

the measured round trip time in milliseconds (-1 or
rtt double
-100 if remote is out-of-network)
IP address that was queried (management IP
ip_addr varchar(20)
address of the remote)

If remotes are not active in the network, i.e. they are deactivated or incomplete in iBuilder, the
latency server will not attempt to measure their latency and no data will be written to this table in
the database for them.

A.4.3 Hub Line Card Statistics

All hub line cards in steady state send a statistics message into the NMS every 15 seconds. This
message serves two purposes: the absence of the message causes an alarm to be raised in
iMonitor, and it contains useful information about the last 15 seconds of hub line card activity. The
data values in each message represent deltas from the previous message. Table A-5 shows the
contents of the nms_hub_stats table.

Table A-5: nms_hub_stats Table Format

Column Name Data Type Meaning

time_t that the message arrived at the NMS
timestamp timestamp(14)
server
network_id smallint(5) unsigned identifies the network
unique_id int(10) unsigned uniquely identifies the hub line card
modem_sn int(10) unsigned hub line card’s serial number
scpc_num_tx_attempts int(10) unsigned number of SCPC transmit attempts
scpc_num_tx_bytes int(10) unsigned number of SCPC bytes transmitted
scpc_num_tx_errors int(10) unsigned number SCPC transmit errors
acq_crc_errors int(10) unsigned number of acquisition CRC errors
traffic_crc_errors int(10) unsigned number of traffic CRC errors
bursts_detected int(10) unsigned number of TDMA bursts detected at this hub
bytes_rxed int(10) unsigned number of TDMA bytes received at this hub
number of times the DMA was reset due to an
rx_overflow_frames int(10) unsigned
overflow condition
output of the receive power detector converted
rx_composite_power double
to dBm.
rx_tunnel_errors int(10) unsigned number of receive tunnel errors.
tx_tunnel_errors int(10) unsigned number of transmit tunnel errors.
rx_digital_gain smallint(5) unsigned receive digital gain at the hub

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 Table A-5: nms_hub_stats Table Format (Continued)

Column Name Data Type Meaning

calibrated SNR value of the loopback
scpc_snr_cal double
downstream carrier
scpc_sym_offset int(11) loopback SCPC symbol offset.
scpc_freq_offset int(11) loopback SCPC frequency offset.
scpc_frame_lock_status tinyint(4) SCPC loopback lock status (locked, unlocked)
lostlock_count int(10) unsigned number of times SCPC frame lock was lost
current value of the frequency locked loop
fll_dac int(10) unsigned digital to analog converter; normal range is
0x200 to 0xE00

Transmit (tx) values are always zero for receive-only line cards, and receive (rx) values are always
0 for transmit-only line cards. While traffic CRCs almost always indicate an anomaly condition,
acquisition CRC values well above zero are normal when remotes are coming into the network. In
fact, by default iMonitor doesn’t raise a warning condition on acquisition CRCs until they go above
200 in a 15 second period.

A.4.4 Remote Status

All remotes in steady state send a status message into the NMS every 15 seconds. This message
is sent as a UDP datagram, so there’s no guarantee that every message sent will be received.
However, built-in QoS rules give it higher priority than other types of traffic, and our experience
has shown that these messages are rarely dropped. The message contains a variety of
information about the remote, including temperature, number of milliseconds since last boot-up,
perceived SNR, etc. In the absence of other traffic from the remote, the nms_remote_status
message fits into a single small-block TDMA burst. Its contents are shown in Table A-6 below.

Table A-6: nms_remote_status Record Format

Column Name Data Type Meaning

timestamp timestamp(14) time_t that the message arrived at the NMS server
network_id smallint(5) unsigned identifies the network
unique_id int(10) unsigned uniquely identifies the remote
modem_sn int(10) unsigned remote’s serial number
time_tics bigint(20) unsigned number of milliseconds since last boot-up
snr_cal double calibrated SNR value of the downstream carrier
output of the receive power detector converted to
rx_power double
dBm
power_in_dbm double current transmit power in dBm
current temperature measured on the board (not
temperature_celcius double
ambient temp)

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 Table A-6: nms_remote_status Record Format (Continued)

Column Name Data Type Meaning

derived from the digital gain setting in the SCPC
digital_rx_power double
demod, converted to dBm
number of time since boot-up that the remote has
lostlock_count int(10) unsigned
lost lock on the downstream carrier
current value of the frequency locked loop digital to
fll_dac int(10) unsigned
analog converter; normal range is 0x200 to 0xE00
boolean flag field; contact iDirect’s TAC for latest
rmtflags int(10) unsigned
definition
carrier offset frequency; difference, in Hz, of the
rx_cof int(11) incoming frequency and the receiver’s reference
frequency
scpc_rx_errors int(10) unsigned number of SCPC receive errors since last boot-up
tdma_snr_cal double calibrated SNR value of the upstream carrier
tdma_sym_offset smallint(6) TDMA symbol offset
tdma_freq_offset int(11) TDMA frequency offset
tdma_crc_errors int(10) unsigned number of tdma crc errors during the last interval
rx_reliable_byte int(10) unsigned reliable (e.g. TCP) bytes received by the remote
tx_reliable_byte int(10) unsigned reliable (e.g. TCP) bytes sent by the remote
rx_unreliable_byte int(10) unsigned unreliable (e.g. UDP) bytes received by the remote
tx_unreliable_byte int(10) unsigned unreliable (e.g. UDP) bytes sent by the remote
rx_oob_byte int(10) unsigned out-of-band bytes received by the remote
tx_oob_byte int(10) unsigned out-of-band bytes sent by the remote

A.4.5 Uplink Control Adjustments

To maintain iDirect’s industry-leading “always on” feature, the protocol processor sends a network
adjustment message to each in-network remote every 20 seconds. The message is also sent into
the NMS for archiving purposes. The timing of each message is offset to prevent a burst of traffic
at 20-second boundaries, so timestamps will typically vary from remote to remote. This message
contains adjustment values for power, frequency, and timing offset to account for a variety of
conditions: satellite drift, weather conditions at the hub or remote, and remote transmit equipment
inaccuracies. The format of the nms_ucp_info table is shown in Table A-7.

Table A-7: nms_ucp_info Record Format

Column Name Data Type Meaning

timestamp timestamp(14) time_t that the message arrived at the NMS server
network_id smallint(5) unsigned identifies the network
unique_id int(10) unsigned uniquely identifies the remote

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 Table A-7: nms_ucp_info Record Format (Continued)

Column Name Data Type Meaning

modem_sn int(10) unsigned remote’s serial number
timing offset in symbols; the remote applies this
sym_offset int(11)
offset to its current frame start delay value
power offset in dBm; the remote adjusts its transmit
power_adjustment int(11)
power by this value
frequency offset; the remote adjusts it current
freq_offset int(11)
transmit frequency by this value
the current SNR of the remote’s transmit signal as
snr_cal double
perceived at the hub
the current SNR of the hub loopback SCPC
scpc_snr_cal double
transmit signal as perceived at the hub

A.4.6 Event Messages

All protocol processors, hub line cards, and remotes send in event messages to record certain
situations that arise during operations. Some events cause conditions to be raised in iMonitor and
others are for informational purposes only. Event messages are not sent at regular time intervals,
nor do they follow a specific text format. The format of the event_msg table is shown in Table A-8.

Table A-8: event_msg Record Format

Column Name Data Type Meaning

timestamp timestamp(14) time_t that the message arrived at the NMS server.
a number signifying the severity level of the
event_level int(11)
message. This field deprecated.
a number signifying the portion of the system that
event_class int(11)
generated the event. This field is deprecated.
uniquely identifies the remote or hub line card (0 for
unique_id int(10) unsigned
protocol processor events)
the remote’s or line card’s serial number (0 for
modem_sn int(10) unsigned
protocol processor events)
for remotes and line cards, the number of
time_tics bigint(20) unsigned milliseconds since boot-up; for protocol processors,
time_t in milliseconds of the machine
msg varchar(255) free-form event message text

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A.4.7 Hub and Remote State Changes
During everyday system operation, situations occasionally arise that require operator attention, or
at least operator notification. These situations are called “conditions”, and are associated with a
change in the operational state of the network element in question. Examples of conditions include
temperature warnings, SNR below limit warnings, and out-of-network alarms.

All conditions and changes of state are recorded in the archive database. For hub line cards and
remote units, these conditions are recorded in the archive table state_change_log. The format of
this table is shown in Table A-9 below.

Table A-9: state_change_log Record Format

Column Name Data Type Meaning

timestamp timestamp(14) time_t that the condition was raised or cleared
unique_id int(10) unsigned uniquely identifies the remote or hub line card
modem_sn int(10) unsigned remote’s or line card’s serial number
current_state enum current state of the modem after this condition is
processed; values are:
• OK
• WARNING
• ALARM
• UNKNOWN
• OFFLINE
• ELSEWHERE
• MESHALARM
• STATE_NONE
NOTE: MySQL enumeration types are 1-based, not
0-based.
time_t of original condition in the case of multiple
occurred_at timestamp(14)
simultaneous conditions

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 Table A-9: state_change_log Record Format (Continued)

Column Name Data Type Meaning

error_type smallint(6) translates to a condition type; current values are (in
ascending numeric order):
• UPSTREAM_SNR = 0
• DOWNSTREAM_SNR
• LOCAL_LAN_DISCONNECT
• UCP_LOST_CONTACT,
• TEMP_LIMIT
• LL_DOWN
• UCP_OUT_OF_NETWORK,
• LATENCY
• LAT_TIMEOUT
• LACK_HUB_STATS
• ACQ_HUB_MODEM_CRC
• TRAFFIC_HUB_MODEM_CRC
• SYMBOL_OFFSET
• REMOTE_OFFLINE
• RX_OVERFLOW_FRAMES
• CALIBRATED_TX_POWER
• TX_FREQUENCY
• MOBILE_LOST_GPS
• DOWNSTREAM_PPS_OVERDRIVE
• BACKPLANE_LOST_10MHZ
• FAILED
• RESET
• UNREADY
• SCPC_RX_ERRORS
• FLL_DAC_ERRORS
• FLASH
• ACTIVATION_STATUS
• ELSEWHERE_ERROR
• FANALARM
• AGCOUTOFRANGE
error_severity enum severity of the condition; values are:
• EVTWarning
• EVTAlarm
• EVTCleared
• EVTOffline
• EVTElsewhere
• EVTMeshAlarm
• EVTNone
NOTE: MySQL enumeration types are 1-based, not
0-based.
reason varchar(255) text explanation of the condition

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Interpreting the entries in the state_change_log table requires some understanding of how the
NMS manages conditions and overall element state. First of all, it is possible for multiple
conditions to be active for a single hub or remote at any given time. Consider the following
scenario:

1. A remote is in steady state with no active conditions. The overall state of the unit is OK.

2. A rain storm blows into a remote’s location, which causes the SNR of the downstream
signal to drop below the defined low limit. This is condition 1, a warning. The overall
state of the unit changes to WARNING.

3. The weather situation persists, and the protocol processor loses contact with the
remote. This is condition 2, a warning. The overall state of the unit remains at
WARNING.

4. The protocol processor is unable to re-gain contact with the remote, so it declares the
unit out-of-network. This is condition 3, an alarm. The overall state of the unit changes
to ALARM.

5. The NMS latency server stops hearing ICMP echo responses from the remote. This is
condition 4, an alarm. The overall state of the unit remains at ALARM.

We now have four simultaneously active conditions, and the overall state of the remote is ALARM.
Each time a new condition is raised for a remote, it is written to the database with the current time
of the NMS server machine in the timestamp field. The occurred_at field is also given the same
timestamp. All pre-existing conditions for that same element are re-written with the same
timestamp in the timestamp field. However, their occurred_at fields remain unchanged, thus
indicating the time those conditions were first raised. Using the timestamp field as a key, you can
determine all active conditions for a remote at any given time.

When conditions clear, they are written once again to the state_change_log table, but this time
with the severity field set to EVT_CLEARED. Not all conditions clear at the same time, but when
all conditions have cleared the overall state of the unit returns to OK.

The only conditions with alarm severity are those that cause a service interruption. Currently there
are three conditions that fall into this category: LLDOWN (layer 2), UCP_OUT_OF_NETWORK
(layer 2), and LAT_TIMEOUT (layer 3). You can generate a remote up/down report for a given
time period by correctly parsing the entries in this table and ignoring all warning conditions.

A.4.8 Protocol Processor State Changes

Protocol processor state changes are stored in their own table in MySQL, named the
pp_state_change_log. Currently the event server generates no PP-specific warnings; its possible
states are UNKNOWN, OK, and ALARM. The OK state is present whenever the event server is
hearing a special PP heartbeat event, and ALARM when that event fails to arrive two successive
timeout periods (6 seconds each). The UNKNOWN state is the default state of all PPs in the event
server when it initially starts up, before it has heard from PPs in the network.

All changes of PP state are stored in the pp_state_change_log table. The format of this table is
shown in Table A-10 below.

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 Table A-10: pp_state_change_log Record Format

Column Name Data Type Meaning

timestamp timestamp(14) time_t that this condition was raised or cleared
pp_id int(10) unsigned uniquely identifies the protocol processor
blade_id int(10) unsigned identifies the protocol processor blade
current state of the protocol processor after this
condition is processed; values are:
• OK
• WARNING
• ALARM
current_state enum
• UNKNOWN
• OFFLINE
• STATE_NONE
Currently, only OK, ALARM, and UNKNOWN
are raised for protocol processors.
time_t the condition was first raised in case of
occurred_at timestamp(14)
multiple simultaneous conditions
severity of the condition; values are
• EVTWarning
• EVTAlarm
error_severity enum
• EVTCleared
• EVTOffline
• EVTNone
reason varchar(255) text explanation of the condition

Entries in this table can be processed in essentially the same way as hub line card and remote
state changes. See that section for more details.

A.4.9 Hub Chassis State Changes

Hub chassis state changes are stored in their own table in MySQL, named the
chassis_state_change_log. Chassis warnings are raised for power and fan alarms from the
chassis. The event server and iMonitor treat these “alarms” as warnings, since service is not
interrupted and immediate action is not absolutely necessary. The ALARM condition is raised only
when the event server loses contact with the hub chassis. In this case, service may still not be
interrupted, since the event server communicates with an independent component of the chassis
known as the EDAS board.

Chassis state changes are stored in the chassis_state_change_log table. The format of this table
is shown in Table A-11 below.

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 Table A-11: chassis_state_change_log Record Format

Column Name Data Type Meaning

timestamp timestamp(14) time_t that this condition was raised or cleared
chassis_id int(10) unsigned uniquely identifies this chassis
current state of the chassis after this condition
is processed; values are:
• OK
• WARNING
current_state enum
• ALARM
• UNKNOWN
• OFFLINE
• STATE_NONE
time_t this condition was first raised in the case
occurred_at timestamp(14)
of multiple simultaneous conditions.
severity of this condition; values are:
• EVTWarning
• EVTAlarm
severity enum
• EVTCleared
• EVTOffline
• EVTNone
reason varchar(255) text explanation of this condition

A.4.10 Over-the-Air Statistics Tables

As shown in Table A-1, there are three separate base table types for over-the-air statistics, each
one containing records that cover a particular period of time. The ota_minute_stats and
ota_hour_stats tables have all the fields contained in the raw_ota_stats plus additional fields
containing maximum and standard deviation calculations for all fields of over-the-air data. These
fields are discussed in more detail later in this section.

Over-the-air statistics for all active remotes are calculated by the protocol processor and sent to
the NMS every five seconds. After sending a stats message, the protocol processor zeros its
counts, so that every database record contains the delta in activity from the previous record. The
protocol processor continues to send messages to the NMS even if a remote is out-of-network;
the counts for these records contain all zeros.

Table A-12: OTA Stats Record Format

Column Name Data Type Meaning

timestamp timestamp(14) time_t that the message arrived at the NMS server
t_interval int(10) unsigned interval in seconds that the data covers

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 Table A-12: OTA Stats Record Format

Column Name Data Type Meaning

network_id smallint(5) unsigned identifies the network
unique_id int(10) unsigned uniquely identifies the remote
modem_sn int(10) unsigned remote’s serial number
rx_reliable_kbyte double kilobytes of reliable (e.g. TCP) data received
tx_reliable_kbyte double kilobytes of reliable (e.g. TCP) data sent to the remote
rx_unreliable_kbyte double kilobytes of unreliable (e.g. UDP) data received
tx_unreliable_kbyte double kilobytes of unreliable (e.g. UDP) data sent to the remote
rx_oob_kbyte double kilobytes of out-of-band bytes received
tx_oob_kbyte double kilobytes of out-of-band bytes sent to the remote

Consolidated Over-the-Air Statistics Tables

The two consolidated tables, ota_minute_stats and ota_hour_stats, contain all the fields in the
raw_ota_stats table plus the additional fields that hold maximum and standard deviation values
for each field of over-the-air data. Each maximum column indicates the maximum individual
measurement of all records consolidated into this record. Each standard deviation value,
calculated using a common formula, tells you how clustered the consolidated measurements were
around the average of all consolidated data records.

Table A-13: Additional Consolidated OTA Stats Table Fields

Column Name Data Type Meaning

The maximum rx_reliable_kbyte value of the records
rx_reliable_max double
consolidated into this record
tx_reliable_max double As above, for tx_reliable_kbyte
rx_unreliable_max double As above, for rx_unreliable_kbyte
tx_unreliable_max double As above, for tx_unreliable_kbyte
rx_oob_max double As above, for rx_oob_kbyte
tx_oob_max double As above, for tx_oobb_kbyte
The standard deviation of all consolidated rx_reliable_kbyte
rx_reliable_stddev float(10,5)
records
tx_reliable_stddev float(10,5) As above, for tx_reliable_kbyte
rx_unreliable_stddev float(10,5) As above, for rx_unreliable_kbyte
tx_unreliable_stddev float(10,5) As above, for tx_unreliable_kbyte
rx_oob_stddev float(10,5) As above, for rx_oob_kbyte
tx_oob_stddev float(10,5) As above, for tx_oobb_kbyte

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A.4.11 Over-the-Air Multicast Statistics Tables
As shown in Table A-1, there are three separate base table types for over-the-air multicast
statistics, each one containing records that cover a particular period of time. The
otacast_minute_stats and otacast_hour_stats tables have all the fields contained in the
raw_otacast_stats plus additional fields containing maximum and standard deviation calculations
for all fields of over-the-air multicast data. These fields are discussed in more detail later in this
section.

Over-the-air multicast statistics for all active remotes are calculated by protocol processor and
sent to the NMS every five seconds. After sending a stats message, the protocol processor zeros
its counts, so that every database record contains the delta in activity from the previous record.
The protocol processor continues to send messages to the NMS even if a remote is out-of-
network; the counts for these records contain all zeros.

Table A-14: OTACAST Stats Record Format

Column Name Data Type Meaning

timestamp timestamp(14) time_t that the message arrived at the NMS server
t_interval int(10) unsigned interval in seconds that the data covers
network_id smallint(5) unsigned identifies the network
tx_bcast_kbyte double kilobytes of broadcast data transmitted
tx_mcast_kbyte double kilobytes of multicast data transmitted

Consolidated Over-the-Air Statistics Tables

The two consolidated tables, otacast_minute_stats and otacast_hour_stats, contain all the fields
in the raw_otacast_stats table plus the additional fields that hold maximum and standard deviation
values for each field of over-the-air data. Each maximum column indicates the maximum
individual measurement of all records consolidated into this record. Each standard deviation
value, calculated using a common formula, tells you how clustered the consolidated
measurements were around the average of all consolidated data records.

Table A-15: Additional Consolidated OTACAST Stats Table Fields

Column Name Data Type Meaning

The maximum tx_bcast_kbyte value of the records consolidated into
tx_bcast_max double
this record
tx_mcast_max double As above, for tx_mcast_kbyte
tx_bcast_stddev double The standard deviation of all consolidated tx_bcast_kbyte records
tx_mcast_stddev double As above, for tx_mcast_kbyte

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A.4.12 Mesh Stats Tables
As shown in Table A-1, there are three separate base table types for mesh stats, each one
containing records that cover a particular period of time. The mesh_minute_stats and
mesh_hour_stats tables have all the fields contained in the raw_mesh_stats plus additional fields
containing maximum and standard deviation calculations for all fields of mesh statistics. These
fields are discussed in more detail later in this section.

Mesh statistics for all active remotes are calculated by the remote and sent to the NMS every 20
seconds. After sending a stats message, the remote zeros its counts, so that every database
record contains the delta in activity from the previous record. The remote continues to send
messages to the NMS even if a remote is out-of-network; the counts for these records contain all
zeros.

Table A-16: Mesh Stats Record Format

Column Name Data Type Meaning

timestamp timestamp(14) time_t that the message arrived at the NMS server
t_interval int(10) unsigned interval in seconds that the data covers
network_id smallint(5) unsigned identifies the network
unique_id int(10) unsigned uniquely identifies the remote
modem_sn smallint(5) unsigned remote’s serial number
kilobytes of reliable (e.g. TCP) mesh data received by
rx_reliable_kbyte double
the remote
kilobytes of reliable (e.g. TCP) mesh data sent by the
tx_reliable_kbyte double
remote
kilobytes of unreliable (e.g. UDP) mesh data received by
rx_unreliable_kbyte double
the remote
kilobytes of unreliable (e.g. UDP) mesh data sent by the
tx_unreliable_kbyte double
remote
kilobytes of out-of-band mesh data received by the
rx_oob_kbyte double
remote
tx_oob_kbyte double kilobytes of out-of-band mesh data sent by the remote

Consolidated Mesh Tables

The two consolidated tables, mesh_minute_stats and mesh_hour_stats, contain all the fields in
the raw_mesh_stats table plus the additional fields that hold maximum and standard deviation
values for each field of mesh data. Each maximum column indicates the maximum individual
measurement of all records consolidated into this record. Each standard deviation value,
calculated using a common formula, tells you how clustered the consolidated measurements were
around the average of all consolidated data records.

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 Table A-17: Additional Consolidated Mesh Stats Table Fields

Column Name Data Type Meaning

The maximum rx_reliable_kbyte value of the records
rx_reliable_max double
consolidated into this record
tx_reliable_max double As above, for tx_reliable_kbyte
rx_unreliable_max double As above, for rx_unreliable_kbyte
tx_unreliable_max double As above, for tx_unreliable_kbyte
rx_oob_max double As above, for rx_oob_kbyte
tx_oob_max double As above, for tx_oob_kbyte
The standard deviation of all consolidated
rx_reliable_stddev float(10,5)
rx_reliable_kbyte records
tx_reliable_stddev float(10,5) As above, for tx_reliable_kbyte
rx_unreliable_stddev float(10,5) As above, for rx_unreliable_kbyte
tx_unreliable_stddev float(10,5) As above, for tx_unreliable_kbyte
rx_oob_stddev float(10,5) As above, for rx_oob_kbyte
tx_oob_stddev float(10,5) As above, for tx_oob_kbyte

A.5 NMS Statistics Archive Database Restructuring

iDS Release 6.1 and all later releases include a major overhaul to the statistics archive database.
The primary goal of this restructuring is to improve overall performance of the NMS server
machines as networks grow, and to improve historical query response times on large networks.

iMonitor users will see no difference in the way historical archive statistics are retrieved and
displayed other than a noticeable improvement in performance. If you access the current archive
directly, or if you’re interested in the new structure, you should read this section. Otherwise you
may safely skip ahead to Section A.5.6 “Converting Data between Table Formats” on page 172.

If you are currently accessing the statistics archive directly using

ODBC, your software will not work on this new archive structure
WARNING without modifications. See the following sections for detailed
information.

A.5.1 Background
In older iDS releases, each archive data type was represented by a single MySQL database table.
Using the raw_ip_stats table as an example, all IP statistics for all remotes were written directly to
this table as they arrived at the NMS. Historical queries for IP statistics were performed on this
table as well. In large networks, the table could grow to well over one gigabyte. This large size,
combined with a large amount of read and write operations, caused a significant performance load
on the NMS server’s CPU and degraded response time in the iMonitor and iBuilder GUIs.

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To alleviate this situation, the NMS now uses a multiple-table storage scheme in which each type
of archived data is divided among multiple tables by time and groups of remotes. Dividing tables
in this manner is known as data striping. The following sections discuss this implementation
change in detail.

A.5.2 The New Archive Database Structure

Each type of statistical data that was formerly stored in a single database table is now stored in
multiple tables. All the tables that together contain the records of a particular statistics type are
called a table set. The table set for each type is sized on two dimensions: time and unique ID. The
default values specify a time dimension of 6 x 360 and an ID dimension of 1. The time dimension
consists of two parameters: the number of tables (which defaults to 6) and the time span of the
data in each table (which defaults to 360 minutes). For a complete list of data types, see Table A-
19 on page 170.

These two dimensions result in the table set shown in Figure A-1 on page 168. Data in this default
table set is striped across the six tables in six-hour segments (hence the 6 x 360 time dimension).
Day by day, the six tables in the set will have the data striped across them as shown in Table A-
18 on page 168.

All Remotes { Time Table 0

Time Table 1
Time Table 2
D
at
a
S

Time Table 3
tri
pe
d
in

Time Table 4
6-
ho
ur

Time Table 5
se
gm
en
ts

Figure A-1: Default Table Set

Table A-18: Default Data Striping

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Table 0 00:00 – 06:00 12:00 – 18:00 … 00:00 – 06:00 12:00 – 18:00
Table 1 06:00 – 12:00 18:00 – 24:00 … 06:00 – 12:00 18:00 – 24:00
Table 2 12:00 – 18:00 … 00:00 – 06:00 12:00 – 18:00 …
Table 3 18:00 – 24:00 … 06:00 – 12:00 18:00 – 24:00 …

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 Table A-18: Default Data Striping

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Table 4 … 00:00 – 06:00 12:00 – 18:00 … 00:00 – 06:00
Table 5 … 06:00 – 12:00 18:00 – 24:00 … 06:00 – 12:00

A.5.3 The New Archive Process

The following two diagrams illustrate how statistics archiving has changed in iDS 6.1 from previous
releases.

Database
Archive Operation Server Incoming Stats
Table

Figure A-2: Release 6.0 and Earlier Stats Archiving Process

Database
Tables
Database
Tables

Archive
Database
Tables
Table
Database
Operation Selection Incoming Stats Server Incoming Stats
Tables
Algorithm

Database
Tables
Database
Tables

Figure A-3: Release 6.1 Stats Archiving Process

In iDS 6.1 as well as later releases, instead of writing all data to one table as it arrives at the NMS,
the server first passes the data through a table selection algorithm. This process determines the
correct database table for the data that has just arrived. A similar selection process also occurs
when historical data is queried from iMonitor.

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The selection rules are based on the following criteria:

• The type of data – IP statistics, events, condition changes, etc. As before, each type
of data has its own table structure
• The remote’s unique database ID
• The current timestamp

A.5.4 Table Division Rules

All table selection rules are stored in the NMS configuration database in a table called
TABLE_INFO. This table has the following format and default values:

Table A-19: TABLE_INFO Format and Default Contents

table_type_id

second_dimension_table_number
time_table_number

time_interval

base_table_name

second_dimension_name
The type of The The number The time The actual tables names, The second
statistics number of of tables per segment derived from the base dimension data
data time time period interval in table name. (These match type ID
periods kept for the each table, the table names in prior
kept for second in minutes releases)
this dimension
statistics data type ID
type
0 6 1 360 chassis_state_change_log chassis_id
1 6 1 360 event_msg unique_id
2 6 1 360 lat_stats unique_id
3 6 1 360 nms_hub_stats unique_id
4 6 1 360 nms_remote_status unique_id
5 6 1 360 nms_ucp_info unique_id
6 6 1 360 pp_state_change_log blade_id
7 6 1 360 raw_ip_stats unique_id
8 6 1 360 raw_ota_stats unique_id
9 6 1 360 raw_otacast_stats network_id
10 6 1 360 state_change_log unique_id
11 6 1 360 ip_minute_stats unique_id
12 6 1 360 ip_hour_stats unique_id
13 6 1 360 ota_minute_stats unique_id
14 6 1 360 ota_hour_stats unique_id

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 Table A-19: TABLE_INFO Format and Default Contents (Continued)
15 6 1 360 otacast_minute_stats unique_id
16 6 1 360 otacast_hour_stats network_id

A.5.5 Table Selection Process

Insertion, selection, and deletion operations all use table selection algorithms, based on current
timestamp and current id, to determine which table to access.

The algorithm for calculating a table name for an operation has a number of steps, as shown
below:

Constants:
base_time = 1072915201 (Linux time_t)

Database Values:
ttn = TABLE_INFO.time_table_number
tis = (TABLE_INFO.time_interval * 60) // convert to seconds
sdtn = TABLE_INFO.second_dimension_table_number
btn = TABLE_INFO.base_table_name

Variables:
t = <timestamp> (Linux time_t)
id = unique_id of element (e.g. remote)

Calculate the current Remote Index value

remote_index = id % sdtn

Calculate the current Time Index value

time_index = (t – base_time) / tis) % ttn

Calculate the current Table Index value

table_index = (ttn * remote_index) + time_index

Derive the appropriate Table Name

table_name = btn <concat> “_” <concat> table_index

For example, table_name = event_msg_3

When running a distributed NMS system, you must read

NOTE TABLE_INFO from the master MySQL machine. This is typically
the same machine as your Configuration Server.

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A.5.6 Converting Data between Table Formats
After the Upgrade to Release 6.1
Your existing archive data is not converted to the new format during the NMS upgrade. Rather,
the new table structure is created with empty tables, and all your existing data remains in the old
tables. The following figure illustrates the database structure for raw_ip_stats statistics after you
complete the upgrade of your NMS server machine to iDS 6.1.

raw _ip_stats_0

raw _ip_stats_1

raw_ip_stats_2

Existing
Data { Existing
raw _ip_stats
data
Empty
{
raw _ip_stats_3

raw _ip_stats_4

raw_ip_stats_5

Figure A-4: Archive Database after Conversion to 6.1

When you restart the NMS servers, new data arriving at the NMS will be archived to the new
tables. The old data will remain in the old tables until you delete it or convert it to the new format.

If you want to convert your existing archive data to the new format, follow these steps:

Step 1 Log onto the NMS server as root.

Step 2 At the command prompt, type:

cd /home/nms/utils/db_maint

Step 3 Convert your archive data by typing

./DB-Conversion.pl
Converts your archive data to the new table format
The DB-Conversion.pl command has the following format and output:

./DB-Conversion.pl -h
Usage:

DB-Conversion.pl [-cd=NAME] [-ad=NAME]

-cd : Change config database from [nms]
-ad : Change archive database from [nrd_archive]

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Changing the 6.1 Table Structure
You can modify the TABLE_INFO settings show in Table A-19 on page 170. For example, you can
change the number of time tables, the second dimension tables, or the time interval.

If you choose to modify the default TABLE_INFO

settings, and you are running a Distributed NMS,
WARNING you must change the database on the master MySQL
machine. This is typically the same machine as
your Configuration Server.

Follow these steps to modify the TABLE_INFO settings:

Step 1 Log onto the NMS server as root.

Step 2 At the command prompt, type:

cd /home/nms/utils/db_maint

Step 3 Stop NMS Services by typing:

service idirect_nms stop

You must stop NMS Services before changing the

WARNING table structure, or run this process offline.

Step 4 Use the ./DB-Migration.pl script to change the table structure. All forms of
this script are shown below.

# ./DB-Migration.pl -h
DB-Migration.pl [-cd=NAME] [-ad=NAME] [-DD]
-cd : Change config database from [nms]
-ad : Change archive database from [nrd_archive]
-DD : Do not touch any data outside of the ip_stats
-suffix : Change suffix for existing tables for database
[nrd_archive], default is "old"
If you run the script with no arguments as shown below, it will rename the existing tables by adding
the suffix “old.” For example, “event_msg_1” becomes “event_msg_1_old.” Once you have
verified the data in the new format, you should remove these renamed tables.

./DB-Migration.pl <RET>
Converts existing 6.1 data into new table structure

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A.5.7 Optimizing Archive Database Performance
The efficiency of archive database access is affected by the size and number of tables for each of
the 17 statistics types in the archive. iDirect provides a database partitioning calculator to help you
determine the optimal size of these tables based on the number of remotes in your network and
the frequency with which the statistics are updated in the archive. Once you have used the
calculator to determine the optimal settings, you can update the information in columns two
through four of the TABLE_INFO table shown in Table A-19 on page 170 to match the results of
your calculations.

Copying the Archive Database Partitioning Calculator to Your PC

The calculator is installed on your NMS server as part of the iDirect software release. Before using
the calculator, you should copy it to your PC or laptop. The procedure in this section shows how
to use Cygwin to retrieve the calculator.

You must have access to the root account on the NMS server to
NOTE retrieve the calculator.

Follow these steps to copy the archive database partitioning calculator to your PC or laptop using
Cygwin:

Step 1 Create a folder on your PC or laptop where you want to store the calculator.

Step 2 Start Cygwin on your PC or laptop.

Step 3 In the Cygwin window, use the cd command to change your directory to the
new folder. The command syntax is show here using the directory
db_calculator at the top level of the C: drive.

cd /c/db_calculator

Step 4 In the Cygwin terminal window, type:

SCP root@<IP Address>:/home/nms/utils/db_maint/

table_info-calculator.htm ./
where <IP Address> is the IP address of your NMS server.

Step 5 Enter the root password when prompted and press ENTER. The
calculator will be transferred to your PC.

Step 6 Execute the following command to reformat your copy of the file for the
Windows environment.

unix2dos table_info-calculator.htm

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 Step 7 Close your Cygwin terminal window.

Figure A-5 presents an example of these steps.

Figure A-5: Retrieving the Database Partitioning Calculator Using Cygwin

Using the Archive Database Partitioning Calculator

The archive database partitioning calculator is an HTML application that must be run in Microsoft’s
Internet Explorer (IE) web browser. To use the calculator:

Step 1 On your PC or laptop, navigate to the folder into which you copied the
calculator.

Step 2 Right-click the calculator and select Open With J Internet Explorer to
display the calculator in your browser window.

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Step 3 If you are running Windows XP with Service Pack 2, you must right-click the
security message at the top of the calculator window and select Allow
Blocked Content. Then click Yes in the warning dialog box.

Step 4 Use the calculator to determine the optimal settings for your archive
database partitions. The parameters and their usage is described below.

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 Figure A-6: Archive Database Partitioning Calculator

Figure A-6 shows the calculated results for the nms_remote_status table in a network with 750
remotes with a logging rate of four times per minute. The parameters are entered in the top portion
of the screen. The results appear in the lower (yellow) portion of the screen when you click the
Calculate Table_Info data button.

The following parameters can be entered in the calculator.

• The Base Table Name (identical to the base_table_name in the TABLE_INFO table on
page 170) represents the table definition for the table set that contains all statistics of
this type. Before calculating the results, you should select the Base Table Name of
interest from this list.
• Time to Keep Data (hrs) represents the amount of time in hours to retain the data for
this Base Table Name before it is overwritten. You can modify this parameter based on

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 your requirement to keep records of this type on the NMS server and your available
disk space.
• Maximum Table Size (MB) is used to calculate the optimal number of tables that should
be created for this Base Table Name. This parameter is not stored in the database. It is
a limit used by the calculator to help compute the best results. In general, you should
use the default setting.
• Number of Records per Minute is the rate per minute at which records of this type are
being logged for each remote (or other device) in the table set. This is not a
configurable parameter and it varies dynamically with network load. If you have
measured a value for your network for which you want to optimize the table set, you
can change this parameter to reflect that value. Otherwise, you should use the default
setting.
• Number of Second Dimension Elements represents approximately the total number of
devices (second dimension elements) associated with the Base Table Name in your
network. Note that if the number of remotes in your network changes significantly, you
should consider re-executing the calculator and reconfiguring the TABLE_INFO for
tables that log remote statistics. You can vary the number of second dimension
elements used by the calculator in increments of 250.
• Record Size (in bytes) is the size of the database record for this Base Table Name. In
general, you should use the default setting.
After entering all parameters, click the Calculate Table_Info data button to calculate the following
results:

• Time Table Number represents the optimal number of time segments recommended for
this Base Table Name based on the parameters entered. This result corresponds to the
time_table_number in the TABLE_INFO table shown in Table A-19 on page 170.
• Second Dimension Name represents the number of tables per time period
recommended for this Base Table Name based on the parameters entered. This result
corresponds to the second_dimension_name in the TABLE_INFO table.
• Time Interval (hrs) represents the length of time for each time segment recommended
for this Base Table Name based on the parameters entered. This result corresponds to
the time_interval in the TABLE_INFO table.
After you have calculated the optimal time_table_number, second_dimension_name and
time_interval for all tables you want to optimize, you can log into the root directory of the NMS
server and use MySQL to change the TABLE_INFO configuration in the NMS database to match
the optimal values.

Figure A-7 shows the table set that would be created for nms_remote_status if INFO_TABLE were
modified in accordance with the values calculated in figure Figure A-6 on page 177.

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 Figure A-7: Segmented nms_remote_status archive tables

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A.5.8 Selecting from the Restructured Database
In the past, when selecting records from the statistics archive, you would use a single query
against a single table to find your answer. For instance, to get all state_change_log records with
time range of 2006-11-20 10:00 to 2006-11-20 14:00, you would issue the query:

SELECT * FROM state_change_log WHERE timestamp BETWEEN

20061120100000 AND 20061120140000;
Because all records were in one table, state_change_log, a complete result set was returned.

A bit more work goes into getting the same answer from a “striped” database. The main thing to
remember is that in the restructured database, a query on a sufficiently large time range (by
default +6 hours) is guaranteed to span multiple tables. When a query’s time range reaches
ttn * tis hours (6 * 6 = 36 hours by default), the result takes stripes from every table in the table
set. Up to the ttn * tis time range limit, you must choose between efficiency and simplicity. When
the goal is efficiency, a query must be pre-processed and split, so that only tables containing
matching records are queried. When the goal is simplicity, queries are re-factored to cast a wide
net, potentially querying tables that do not contribute to the result set.

Identifying the Location of the Result Set

When the result set is guaranteed to come from only one or two tables, it makes sense to avoid
query overhead by applying the query selectively. To do so, first calculate the index for every table
containing records in your query time range. Then, run one query per table index calculated.

Using the example above and default striping parameters:

Inputs:

Stripe base time (base) = 2004-01-01 00:00:01 = 1072915201

TABLE_INFO.time_table_number (ttn) = 6 tables
TABLE_INFO.time_interval (tis) = 6 hours = 21600 seconds
TABLE_INFO.second_dimension_table_number = 1, which allows us to ignore
this dimension. (Anything modulo 1 equals 0, so there is no second dimension
component to the table index)
Query start time (start) = 2006-11-20 10:00:00 = 1164016800
Query end time (end) = 2006-11-20 14:00:00 = 1164031200

Calculate all table indexes:

To get the range of table indexes, calculate the index of the query start and end times. Those two
indexes, and everything in between, must be included in the queries.

The first table index is derived from start:

Idx_0 = ((start – base) / tis % ttn

= ((1164016800 – 1072915201) / 21600) % 6
= 5

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The last table index derives from end:

Idx_N = ((end – base) / tis) % ttn

= ((1164031200 – 1072915201) / 21600) % 6
= 0
Divide the query among all indexes:

In this case, the first half of our records is in state_change_log_5:

SELECT * FROM state_change_log_5 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN

20061120100000 AND 20061120140000;
and the remaining records are in state_change_log_0:

SELECT * FROM state_change_log_0 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN

20061120100000 AND 20061120140000;

Concatenating the two result sets returns the same answer arrived at in the 1st example.

Larger query time range:

The procedure is exactly the same with a larger time ranges:

Query start time (start) = 2006-11-20 19:00:00 = 1164049200

Query end time (end) = 2006-11-21 07:00:00 = 1164092400
Idx_0 = ((1165059200 – 1072915201) / 21600) % 6
= 1
Idx_N = ((1164092400 – 1072915201) / 21600) % 6
= 3
The queries to run are:

SELECT * FROM state_change_log_1 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN

20061120100000 AND 20061120140000;
SELECT * FROM state_change_log_2 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN
20061120100000 AND 20061120140000;
SELECT * FROM state_change_log_3 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN
20061120100000 AND 20061120140000;

Ignoring the Location of the Result Set Part One:

When the goal is to write simpler scripts, or when query time ranges near the tis * ttn limit, skip
query pre-processing and simply query all tables. There are two portable methods for doing this:

Multiple queries, external concatenation:

As in the second example, you could make multiple queries, and then concatenate and sort
externally (in Perl, for instance):

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 SELECT * FROM state_change_log_0 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN
20061120100000 AND 20061120140000;
SELECT * FROM state_change_log_1 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN
20061120100000 AND 20061120140000;
SELECT * FROM state_change_log_2 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN
20061120100000 AND 20061120140000;
SELECT * FROM state_change_log_3 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN
20061120100000 AND 20061120140000;
SELECT * FROM state_change_log_4 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN
20061120100000 AND 20061120140000;
SELECT * FROM state_change_log_5 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN
20061120100000 AND 20061120140000;

Unions

A slightly simpler method is to use UNIONs:

(SELECT * FROM state_change_log_0 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN

20061120100000 AND 20061120140000)
UNION
(SELECT * FROM state_change_log_1 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN
20061120100000 AND 20061120140000)
UNION
(SELECT * FROM state_change_log_2 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN
20061120100000 AND 20061120140000)
UNION
(SELECT * FROM state_change_log_3 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN
20061120100000 AND 20061120140000)
UNION
(SELECT * FROM state_change_log_4 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN
20061120100000 AND 20061120140000)
UNION
(SELECT * FROM state_change_log_5 WHERE timestamp BETWEEN
20061120100000 AND 20061120140000)
ORDER BY timestamp;
With this method, MySQL concatenates and sorts the records for you. No external post-
processing required.

Ignoring the Location of the Result Set Part Two:

MySQL has a feature that makes querying multiple tables even simpler. A MERGE table is a
collection of identical tables that can be used as a single table. To create a MERGE table of
state_change_log_X:

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 CREATE TABLE state_change_log_merged (
`timestamp` timestamp(14) NOT NULL,
`unique_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
`modem_sn` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
`current_state`
enum('OK','WARNING','ALARM','UNKNOWN','OFFLINE','ELSEWHERE','MESH
ALARM','SLEEP','STATE_NONE') default NULL,
`occurred_at` timestamp(14) NOT NULL,
`error_type` smallint(6) default NULL,
`error_severity`
enum('EVTWarning','EVTAlarm','EVTCleared','EVTOffline','EVTElsewh
ere','EVTMeshAlarm','EVTSleep','EVTNone') default 'EVTNone',
reason` varchar(255) default NULL,
KEY `IDX_TIME_UQ` (`timestamp`,`unique_id`))
TYPE=MERGE
UNION=(state_change_log_0, state_change_log_1,
state_change_log_2, state_change_log_3, state_change_log_4,
state_change_log_5);
Most of the CREATE statement consists of a copy of state_change_log_X’s CREATE statement
(you can view it by issuing the query “SHOW CREATE TABLE state_change_log_0”.) The
differences are the name, of course; the TYPE or ENGINE clause, which tells MySQL what kind of
table we’re creating (normally MyISAM); and an additional UNION clause, which identifies the list
of tables in the collection.

With a MERGE table interface to the restructured database, your old queries require only one
change:

SELECT * FROM state_change_log_merged WHERE timestamp BETWEEN

20061120100000 AND 20061120140000 ORDER BY timestamp;
A query on a MERGE table behaves, internally, the same way as the UNION query. MySQL runs
the query on every table in the collection then collates the results (as directed by the ORDER BY
clause.) The sole benefit is shorter, cleaner queries.

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Appendix B Alarms and Warnings

The iDirect NMS provides real-time notification of system anomalies, classified by severity. The
iMonitor GUI provides complete visibility to the real-time status and operational characteristics of
network elements. “Status” refers to the real-time state of network elements, i.e. OK, warning, and
alarm.

Alarms indicate an interruption in service or remote sites that are out-of-network. Warnings display
potential anomalous conditions and system values that are out of range.

B.1 Alarms
The following table lists alarms, their descriptions and recommended actions.

Table B-1: Alarms

Alarm Description Action, Troubleshooting

• Check if the network path to the HUB
Chassis is available from the NMS server
The HUB Chassis (ping, tracert).
controller interface has • Check if the HUB Chassis is powered up.
Chassis Down failed or become • Make sure the chassis controller card
unavailable from the (EDAS) is connected to the upstream LAN,
NMS not the tunnel LAN.
• NOTE: It is likely that the HUB line cards are
still operating.
• Make sure the NMS server can reach the
Line Cards across upstream router (ping,
tracert).
• Check chassis slot power via NMS.
Line Card is powered • In case of card failure, check status LED on
Line Card Down Line Card front panel for cause. Solid Red
off or has failed.
status LED indicates that the Universal Line
Card has detected a fault, or Application
software or firmware cannot be loaded.
Replace Line Card or reload firmware
images.
• Check if the network path to Protocol
Processor is available from the NMS server
Protocol Processor is (ping, tracert).
PP Down
not responding
• Check if Protocol Processor is powered up
and operational.

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 Table B-1: Alarms (Continued)

Alarm Description Action, Troubleshooting

• Verify configuration in iBuilder.
• Check stability of the RF link
• Check history in iMonitor of Tx Power and
Remote is not in Down C/N of remote. Higher Tx power and
network (out of lower C/N indicate degradation.
Remote Layer 2
network or link layer 1 Short-term possibly due to rain fade.
down)
2 Long-term possibly due to degradation of
installation. Check RF chain: BUC, LNB,
cables, connectors for moisture. Dish
positioning.
• This can be due to high traffic load. (Remote
Remote is not may still be in network)
responding to ICMPs,
Remote Layer 3 • Check if network path to Remote is available
i.e. has missed 3
ICMPs in a row. from the NMS server (tracert, ping) or where
the network path is broken.

B.2 Warnings
Warnings signal a condition that could possibly result in a future interruption in service if not
handled in a timely fashion. The following table lists warnings, their descriptions and
recommended actions.

The following “alarms” are classified as warnings in the NMS:

NOTE PowerAlarm(1/2/3), FanAlarm, RCM(A/B)Alarm.

Warning limits can be configured using iBuilder. Any specific

NOTE limits shown in Table B.2 represent default values. For details on
setting warning limits, see the iBuilder User Guide.

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 Table B-2: Warnings

Device Warning Condition Description Action, Troubleshooting

HUB Chassis power supply 1
failed.
If one of the three Power
HUB Chassis PowerAlarm1 Supply Modules fails, the other Replace power supply 1
two Power Supply Modules are
capable of sourcing enough
power to make up for the failed
supply module.
HUB Chassis power supply 2
PowerAlarm2 Replace power supply 2
failed
Hub Chassis power supply 3
PowerAlarm3 Replace power supply 3
failed
A Fan failure is reported if the • Verify the Fan Alarm Status
any of the three Fan Modules on the rear of the HUB
propeller spins below a chassis. A failed fan will be
predetermined revolution-per- indicated by the red color
minute (RPM). LED.
FanAlarm A fully loaded iDirect HUB • Replace failed cooling fan
Chassis (20
Universal Line Cards) can
remain in operation with two of
the three Fan Modules still
functioning.
• If RCM [A, B] is set to external
clock mode, check for loss of
HUB chassis reference clock 10 MHz clock source.
RCMAAlarm
module (RCM) A failed. • Check RCM A for failure.
Replace reference clock
module A.
• If RCM [A, B] is set to external
clock mode, check for loss of
HUB chassis reference clock 10 MHz clock source.
RCMBAlarm
module (RCM) B failed. • Check RCM B for failure.
Replace reference clock
module B.
Received frames are lost. Total • Add new HUB line card and
HUB Line of received and transmitted dedicate one line card to
RX_OVERFLOW_FRAMES transmission only.
Card frames exceed HUB line card’s
performance limits.
DOWNSTREAM_PPS_OVERD Downstream packets-per-second
RIVE count above fixed limit

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 Table B-2: Warnings (Continued)

Device Warning Condition Description Action, Troubleshooting

Make sure both RCMs are
installed and functional. If they
Line card lost the chassis are, this could mean a possible
BACKPLANE_LOST_10MHZ
backplane 10 MHz timing signal chassis backplane failure;
contact the TAC for further
assistance.
• Weak signal could be due to
rain fade.
Remote’s C/N as perceived at • Check transmit power levels
Remote UPSTREAM_SNR
HUB is below/above limits in iBuilder and iMonitor to
determine if the remote is
transmitting at max power.
DOWNSTREAM_SNR Downstream C/N as perceived • Weak signal could be due to
at remote is below/above limits rain fade.
• Check transmit power levels
in iBuilder.
LAN port on remote is
LOCAL_LAN_DISCONNECT Call customer.
disconnected
Protocol Processor has
temporarily lost contact with
UCP_LOST_CONTACT
remote. Could be due to rain
fade.
Remote’s on-board temperature
TEMP_LIMIT Call customer.
is below/above defined limits
Measured latency, hub to remote Increased latency may be
LATENCY
is more than 2000 ms. related to high traffic load.
Line card’s acquisition CRC
Normal during acquisition
ACQ_HUB_MODEM_CRC count above defined limit of 200
process.
within 15 seconds.
Line card’s traffic CRC count
Check for timing problem, power
TRAFFIC_HUB_MODEM_CRC above defined limit of 10 within
problem, RF link.
15 seconds.
Verify exact geographic location
Remote’s timing offset below or of satellite, hub, and remote.
SYMBOL_OFFSET
above calculated limits Adjust in order to minimize
offset.
(Typically a mobile) remote has • This is not an alarm or
been taken offline by local warning.
REMOTE_OFFLINE operator. Causes all alarms and • When remote comes in again,
warnings from this remote to be it clears.
ignored.
Remote’s transmit power below
CALIBRATED_TX_POWER
or above defined power limits
Mobile remote’s GPS has • Don’t reset remote!
MOBILE_LOST_GPS
stopped functioning • Contact customer.

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B.3 Acronyms
C/N Carrier to noise density

CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check

RCM Reference Clock Module

SNR Signal to Noise Ratio

UCP Uplink Control Processing

B.4 Default Warning Limit Thresholds

Table B-3: Warning Limit Thresholds

Warning Type Limit Type Limit Value

UpstreamSNR High 25
UpstreamSNR Low 7
DownstreamSNR High 25
DownstreamSNR Low 7
TempLimit High 77
TempLimit Low 15
AcqHubModemCRC High 200
TrafficHubModemCRC High 10
Latency High 2000
RxOverflowFrames High 1
CalibratedTxPower High 7
CalibratedTxPower Low -35

Each remote’s symbol offset is also automatically checked, and if

the value goes above or below the limit a warning is raised in
NOTE iMonitor. The symbol offset limit ranges are automatically
calculated for each remote based on the upstream information
rate.

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Appendix C SNMP Proxy Agent

Beginning with release 3.1, iDirect’s NMS includes an SNMP proxy agent that provides real-time
status, statistical information, and basic configuration information to any interested SNMP client.

C.1 How the Proxy Agent Works

The SNMP Proxy Agent is a client of the NMS Configuration Server, NMS Event Server, NRD
Server and Latency Server. It gets a list of network elements from the Configuration Server; the
real-time status of each element from the Event Server; Statistical information for all remotes and
line cards from the NRD Server; and the Latency information from the Latency Server. The
statistical information is provided beginning in Release 7.0. Figure 1 illustrates how the SNMP
Proxy Agent fits into the overall NMS architecture.

Figure C-1: SNMP Proxy Architecture

The SNMP Proxy Agent Management Information Base (MIB) supports both SNMP Get requests
for polling and SNMP traps for asynchronous notification of status changes. The MIB is
automatically updated to reflect changes in element status and/or configuration, including the

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addition and deletion of network elements. It also collects statistical information regarding network
elements.

The SNMP Proxy Agent is automatically installed on the NMS server as part of the iDirect software
release and is included in the normal NMS server startup and shutdown procedure.

C.2 The iDirect Management Information Base (MIB)

The SNMP MIB supplies the following information for iDirect network elements.
Table C-1: iDirect MIB Contents

Element Type Available Information

• ID
• Name
• Teleport ID
• Current State
Protocol Processor
• List of Warnings
• List of Alarms
• Condition Raised (trap)
• Condition Cleared (trap)
• ID
• Name
• Current State
Chassis • List of Warnings
• List of Alarms
• Condition Raised (trap)
• Condition Cleared (trap)
• ID
• Serial Number
• Name
• Geographic Location
Coordinates
• Network ID
• Protocol Processor ID
• Teleport ID
Remote Modem • Receive ID (identifies
inroute)
• IP Address
• Type ID
• Current State
• List of Warnings
• List of Alarms
• Condition Raised (trap)
• Condition Cleared (trap)

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Beginning with iDirect Release 7.0, the SNMP MIB supplies the following statistical information for
iDIRECT network elements.

Table C-2: iDirect MIB Statistical Information

Statistics Type Available Information Data Class

Net Modem DID Not Applicable
Rx tcp Packets in bytes Running Total
Rx udp Packets in bytes Running Total
Rx icmp Packets in bytes Running Total
Rx igmp Packets in bytes Running Total
Rx http Packets in bytes Running Total
Rx other Packets in bytes Running Total
IP Statistics
Tx tcp Packets in bytes Running Total
Tx udp Packets in bytes Running Total
Tx icmp Packets in bytes Running Total
Tx igmp Packets in bytes Running Total
Tx http Packets in bytes Running Total
Tx other Packets in bytes Running Total
Ip statistics last updated timestamp
Net Modem DID Not Applicable
Downstream reliable in bytes Running Total
Downstream unreliable in bytes Running Total
Downstream overhead in bytes Running Total
Downstream multicast in bytes Running Total
Downstream broadcast in bytes Running Total
OTA Statistics
Downstream total in kilobytes Running Total
Upstream reliable in bytes Running Total
Upstream unreliable in bytes Running Total
Upstream overhead in bytes Running Total
Upstream total in kilobytes Running Total
OTA statistics last updated Timestamp

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 Table C-2: iDirect MIB Statistical Information (Continued)

Statistics Type Available Information Data Class

Net Modem DID Not Applicable
Upstream SNR in dB Overwrite
Power Adjustment in dBm Overwrite
Remote UCP Symbol Offset Overwrite
Frequency Offset in Hz Overwrite
Remote UCP statistics last updated
Timestamp
Net Modem DID Not Applicable
Net Modem Name Not Applicable
Net Modem SN Not Applicable
Latency IP address Overwrite
Latency in seconds Overwrite
Network Name Not Applicable
Latency statistics last updated Timestamp
Line Card DID Not Applicable
Type SN Not Applicable
Tx attempts Running Total
Tx bytes Running Total
Tx errors Running Total
Acq CRC errors Running Total
Traffic CRC errors Running Total
Hub Statistics
Bursts Running Total
Rx bytes Running Total
Rx power Overwrite
dma reset Running Total
tunnel rx errors Running Total
tunnel tx errors Running Total
Hub statistics last updated Timestamp

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 Table C-2: iDirect MIB Statistical Information (Continued)

Statistics Type Available Information Data Class

Net Modem DID Not Applicable
Down SNR in dB Overwrite
Tx power in dBm Overwrite
Rx power in dBm Overwrite
Digital rx gain in dB Overwrite
Fll dac Overwrite
Rx cof Overwrite
Temperature Overwrite
TDM lost Running Total
Remote Status
SCPC errors Running Total
Time ticks Overwrite
LAN Port Overwrite
Ethernet mode Overwrite
Ethernet speed Overwrite
Ethernet auto-negotiate Overwrite
terminal session Overwrite
iSite session Overwrite
Remote Status last updated Timestamp
This Timestamp specifies the start time of
Server Start Time the statistical Data

C.2.1 Resetting Statistical Data

There are two classes of statistics contained in the MIB: cumulative statistics, such as IP statistics
and CRC errors; and discrete snapshot measurements, such as temperature and frequency
offset.

Each time statistics arrive from the network and the MIB is updated, new values for cumulative
statistics are added to current values, creating running totals. In contrast, new values for discrete
statistics overwrite the old values. These two types of statistics are distinguished in Table C-2 by
the “Data Class” column.

Cumulative statistics are useful in determining a total value since some previous time period. In
order to reset the baseline time period for cumulative statistics, that is, to reset the counts to zero,
a special object type is included in the MIB. When referenced, this object will reset all the statistics
counters to zero.

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The object is defined in the MIB as follows:

resetAllStatTables OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX Unsigned32
MAX-ACCESS read-write
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION " This field will reset all the statistical
tables under the idirectstats OID"
::= { idirectstats 7}

To reset the statistical data, follow these steps:

Step 1 Log in to the NMS server machine as “root”.

Step 2 Using the vi editor, edit the Net-SNMP daemon configuration file
snmpd.conf:

# cd /etc/snmp

# vi snmpd.conf

Step 3 Add the following line:

rwcommunity private

NOTE Add the above line only if snmpd.conf does not already contain it.

Step 4 Restart the snmpd service:

Example: /etc/init.d/snmpd restart

Step 5 Use the SNMP SET command to set the MIB Object
resetAllStatTables to 1.

Usage: snmpset -v 2c -c private <NMS server Ipaddress>

resetAllStatTables.0 u 1

Data types and table entry names are available from the MIB itself, which is available in the
following file on the NMS server machine:

/usr/share/snmp/mibs/IDIRECT-REMOTE-MIB.txt

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C.2.2 iDirect MIB SNMP Traps
The iDirect SNMP Proxy Agent will send traps to any configured trap recipient based on network
element state changes and raised or cleared element conditions. See the next section of this
document for information on configuring trap recipients.

The complete list of traps is shown in the following table. You will receive each trap when the
specified anomaly arises, and again when the condition clears. The trap-level field in the MIB
specifies the severity.

Table C-3: iDIRECT MIB Traps

Trap Name Generated When… Severity Network Elements

snmpProxyStart SNMP Proxy Agent starts up N/A SNMP Proxy Agent
SNMP Proxy Agent shuts
snmpProxyStop N/A SNMP Proxy Agent
down
Upstream SNR goes outside
upstreamSNR Warning Remotes
specified limits
Downstream SNR goes
downstreamSNR Warning Remotes
outside specified limits
Onboard temperature goes
tempLimit Warning Remotes
outside specified limits
Latency measurement
latency Warning Remotes
exceeds high limit
Symbol offset goes outside
symbolOffset Warning Remotes
specified limits
The local LAN port is non-
ethernetUnplugged Warning Remotes
functional
The protocol processor loses
ucpLostContact Warning Remotes
contact with a remote
The protocol processor’s link
lldown layer interface for a remote Alarm Remotes
goes down
The protocol processor
ucpOutOfNetwork declares a remote out of Alarm Remotes
network
Latency measurements are
latTimeout Alarm Remotes
failing
The remote has been
remoteOffline Offline Remotes
commanded offline
The NMS is no longer
lackHubStats Alarm Hub Modems
receiving hub statistics
Acquisition CRC count
acqHubModemCRC Warning Hub Modems
exceeds high limit

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 Table C-3: iDIRECT MIB Traps (Continued)

Trap Name Generated When… Severity Network Elements

Traffic CRC count exceeds
trafficHubModemCRC Warning Hub Modems
high limit
The NMS has stopped hearing
ppStateTrap Alarm Protocol Processor
from the protocol processor
The specified power supply
powerAlarm1, 2, 3 Warning Chassis
has failed
fanAlarm One of the fans has failed Warning Chassis
The NMS cannot contact the
chassisDown Alarm Chassis
chassis
A remote has received SCPC
scpcRxErrors Warning Remotes
errors on the downstream
A remote’s digital-to-analog
fllDacErrors converter (DAC) is operating Warning Remotes
outside the defined limits

C.2.3 Setting up SNMP Traps

If you want the SNMP Proxy Agent to send traps for network element state changes, you must
designate one or more machines to receive them. The machine name is a parameter in one of
Net-SNMP’s configuration files.

To designate a machine to receive traps, use the following procedure:

Step 1 Log in to the NMS server machine as “root”.

Step 2 Using the vi editor, edit the Net-SNMP daemon configuration file:

# cd /etc/snmp/
# vi snmpd.conf
In a few instances, the SNMP trap configuration has been moved
into /home/nms/snmpsvr/para_cfg.opt. If the instructions above
NOTE are not accurate, execute these commands instead:
# cd /home/nms/snmpsvr/
# vi para_cfg.opt

Step 3 Add a line like the following for each machine to which you want to send
SNMP Version 1 (v1) traps:

trapsink host [community [port]]

Replace host with the name of the desired recipient. The
community and port strings are optional.

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Step 4 Add a line like the following for each machine to which you want to send
SNMP Version 2 (v2) traps:

trap2sink host [community [port]]

Replace host with the name of the desired recipient. The
community and port strings are optional.-

WARNING Do not change or remove any other lines in this file.

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C.3 Working with HP OpenView
The SNMP product installed on the NMS server machine is an open-source package called Net-
SNMP. The MIB syntax processing is slightly different between this package and HP OpenView.
If you use HP OpenView as your SNMP client software, you will need to load the special HP
OpenView-specific MIB instead of the MIB that comes standard with our agent.

The HP OpenView MIB can found on the NMS server machine in the following location:

/home/nms/snmpsvr/IDIRECT-REMOTE-MIB.hpov.txt

C.3.1 Linux SNMP Tools

The Net-SNMP package supplies a number of command-line utilities that perform various SNMP-
related functions. These commands are listed below, along with a one-line description of what
each one does.
Table C-4: SNMP Command Line Utilities

Command Name Severity

snmpbulkget Communicates with a network entity using SNMP GETBULK Requests
snmpbulkwalk Communicates with a network entity using SNMP BULK Requests
Not a command, but a manual page that describes the common options
snmpcmd
for the SNMP commands
snmpconf Creates and modifies SNMP configuration files
snmpdelta Monitor deltas of integer valued SNMP variables
snmpdf Gets a listing of disk space usage on a remote machine via SNMP
snmpget Communicates with a network entity using SNMP GET Requests
snmpgetnext Communicates with a network entity using SNMP GET NEXT Requests
snmpnetstat Show network status using SNMP
snmpset Communicates with a network entity using SNMP SET Requests
snmpstatus Retrieves important information from a network entity
snmptable Obtain and print an SNMP table
snmptest Communicates with a network entity using SNMP Requests
snmptranslate Translate SNMP object Id (OID) values into more useful information
snmptrap Sends an SNMP trap to a manager
snmpusm Creates and maintains SNMPv3 users on a remote entity
snmpwalk Communicates with a network entity using SNMP GETNEXT Requests

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For more information on any of the commands in this list, log in to the NMS server machine and
type the following command:

# man <command name>

This will display the Linux manual entry or man page for the specified command that provides
usage details, output descriptions, etc. Note that some of the commands above will not display
anything about your iDIRECT networks, but instead display Linux system characteristics, such as
disk space and network status.

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Appendix D Rx CRC Error Correlation

Transmit problems on one or more remotes may cause CRC errors on the hub line card that is
receiving the upstream carrier. CRC errors could be caused by any of a number of problems: a
remote transmitting above the saturation point, a bad cable, interference, etc.

If the upstream carrier is being received by an iNFINITI line card, you can use the iDirect Rx CRC
Correlation feature to identify which remote or remotes are causing the receive packet errors (Rx
CRC errors) on the card.

CRC error checking is a processor-intensive operation. To avoid

overloading the processes of your line cards, iDirect recommends
NOTE that you delete the custom keys that enable Rx CRC Correlation
when you are finished.

Follow these steps to correlate CRC errors on your receive line card with the remotes causing the
errors:

Step 1 Use iBuilder to determine the ID of the inroute being received by the line
card as follows:

a In iBuilder, right-click on the Network and select Compare Configurations

from the menu.

b In the Configuration Comparison dialog box, clear the Show Differences

Only check box.

c Examine the Latest pane to determine the Inroute IDs for the Inroutes in
your Network. Inroute IDs are displayed in the format INROUTE_#, where
# represents the ID of the Inroute. Note the ID of each Inroute.

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Step 2 Enable Rx CRC correlation for your Inroutes as follows:

a Right-click the Network in the iBuilder tree and select ModifyJItem from the
menu.

b Click the Custom tab.

c Enter a network-level custom key in the following format:

[INROUTE_#]
disable_lock = 0
where # is the Inroute ID determined in the previous step.
If you have multiple Inroutes in the Network, you need to create a custom
key for each. For example:
[INROUTE_1]
disable_lock = 0

[INROUTE_2]
disable_lock = 0
etc.

d Click OK to save your changes.

e Right-click the Network in the iBuilder tree and select Apply

ConfigurationJNetwork from the menu.

Step 3 Connect to your protocol processor blades as follows:

a Using a terminal emulator (such as PuTTY), log on to your NMS server

using SSH.

b From the command line of the NMS server, enter the following command to
log onto a blade:

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 > telnet <IP Address> 13255
where <IP Address> is the address of the protocol processor blade.
c Log on to the blade with Username: admin.

Step 4 To view the Rx CRC errors for the Networks configured to use the blade,
run the CRC error correlation report as follows:

a From the command line, enter the command sarmt to access the sarmt
functions on the blade:

> sarmt;

b Enter the net list command to determine the networks available on this
blade. You will see a list of valid networks, as in the following example:

Valid Networks are: 1 4 6

c Enter the net command to select the Network you want to examine. For
example:

> net 1
NETWORK 1

d Enter the crc report command to see the number of CRC errors
generated by each remote over time. The crc report command has
several forms shown in the syntax below:

> crc report

Usage:
crc report {data|acq|all} [reset]

e Enter the following command to see a count of data CRC errors for each
remote:

> crc report all

3100.3235 : DATA CRC [ 1]
3100.3502 : DATA CRC [5818]
3100.4382 : DATA CRC [ 20]
3100.4463 : DATA CRC [ 3]
3100.4656 : DATA CRC [ 11]
3100.7249 : DATA CRC [1369]
3100.8963 : DATA CRC [ 1]
3100.9162 : DATA CRC [ 1]

f You can clear the counts by entering:

> crc report all reset

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 g Repeat steps b through d for each Network on current blade, or enter the
following command to see all CRC errors for all Networks on the blade:

> net * crc report all

If you have more protocol processor blades to check, execute this procedure again, beginning with
Step 3. When you have finished, iDirect recommends that you delete the custom keys you
configured for your Network(s) and re-apply the changes.

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Index
A
alarms
see conditions
archive, see statistics archive
audio notification 20

B
blades
cpu usage 66
monitoring 59
button
accept changes 11

C
conditions 33
acknowledging 22
alarms and warnings on elements 36
audio notification 20
condition log tab 34
interpreting 48
observation view tab 34
viewing 42
conditions pane 27, 34
configuration changes 29
connecting to network elements 98
CRC errors
Identifying Rx errors on line cards caused by remote transmissions 82
cw carrier
enabling from remote probe 63
modifying timeout duration 65

E
elements
putting under observation 39
events 33
interpreting 50
viewing 42
external device monitoring
alarm state vs warning state 51
displaying conditions for all remote devices per inroute 51
displaying conditions for remote devices 51
displaying conditions for teleport devices 51

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 F
find toolbar 23

G
geographic map
clearing remote tracks 141
components of 7
determining a remote’s past locations 141
enabling remote tracking 141
filtering 144 to 146
filtering criteria 144
filtering using the context menu 145
filtering using the toolbar 145
installing on PC 8
installing server license 8
launching 135
launching with historical tracking 136
license for 8
monitoring remotes with 135
PC requirements 7
selecting remotes to view 135
toolbar 137
tracking mobile remotes 140
using the map to select from Network Tree menu 142
viewing the toolbar 137
globe
hiding elements 15
sorting elements 15
tree 15
graphs
IP traffic 114
mesh traffic 121
mesh UCP 86
SAT traffic 111
SATCOM 82
timeplan 68
Group QoS
explanation of statistics displayed 92
exporting statistics to excel or CSV 95
limitation of BW Req statistic 92
viewing statistics 90
viewing statistics for a single node 91
viewing statistics for a single remote 92

H
HDLC addresses, viewing on remotes 98

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 I
iBuilder
description 3
installing 6
iMonitor
description 4
launching 9
using the interface 14
installation
NMS applications 6
IP long term bandwidth usage 127
IP routing table, viewing on remotes 98
IP statistics 109
IP traffic graph 114
iSite 4
iVantage NMS components xi

L
latency, monitoring round-trip 74
launching iMonitor 9
legend 28
line cards
identifying remotes causing Rx CRC errors on 82
statistics on 79
logging in
passwords 9
to other servers 10

M
main toolbar 23
map, see geographic map
mesh
mesh long term bandwidth usage 127
mesh statistics 120
mesh traffic graph 121
mesh UCP tab 86
probe mesh 77
selecting UCP parameters for viewing 87
UCP parameter definitions 88
mobile remotes
determining past locations 141
tracking on geographic map 140
modifying
accepting changes 10

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 N
NetManager, replaced by iSite 4
network condition snapshot 50
network data snapshot 56
network tree 19
see also: tree
NMS
applications 3
iVantage NMS components xi
main components 3
multiple users accessing 10
servers used 5
NMS database
overview 148

O
observation
putting elements under 39
offline state 36

P
panes
conditions 27
configuration changes 29
legend 28
probe 61
probe mesh 78
See also dialog boxes
selecting columns for viewing 30
sorting columns in 16
passwords 9
pn carrier
enabling from remote probe 63
modifying timeout duration 65
probe 61
adjusting remote transmit power 63
functions of 61
transmitting a modulated or unmodulated carrier 63
probe mesh 77

R
remotes
viewing IP and HDLC information on 98
reports 127 to 134

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 long-term bandwidth usage 127
remote availability 133
requirements
system 6
right-click
menu options 22

S
SAT long term bandwidth usage 127
SAT statistics 109
SAT traffic graph 111
SATCOM graph 82
saving data to files 12
saving workspaces 25
selecting columns for viewing 30
servers 5
SkyMonitor
capturing a bitmap image of the display 107
changing RF port settings 103
described 100
launching from the iMonitor tree 100
recalling and viewing saved data 105
saving data to the NMS server 104
viewing carriers and pre-defined bandwidth 100
snapshots 50 to 57
SNMP
iDirect MIB 192
iDirect traps defined 197
resetting MIB statistics 195
setting up traps 198
statistics in MIB 192
support on iDirect 191 to 201
sorting columns 16
sorting the tree 17
statistics
IP 109
SAT 109
statistics archive
accessing
basic information 149
changing the 6.1 table structure 173
converting data between table formats 172
installing the partitioning calculator on your PC 174
optimized storage 147
partitioning the database 174
querying the restructured database tables 180
resturcturing for release 6.1 167

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 table details 151
using the partitioning calculator 175
status bar 26
system requirements 6

T
teleport condition snapshot 50
time periods
for requesting data 11
time ranges, saving 11
timeplan graph 68
toolbars
configuration changes 29
find 23
geographic map 137
icons 23, 26
legend 28
main 20, 23
main menu 22
status bar 26
view menu 22
tree
description 19
sorting the tree 17

U
upstream carriers
Rx CRC errors on 82
users
multiple 10

W
windows, See panes
See also dialog boxes
workspaces
saving and reloading 25

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