How to monitor Optic Fiber links between two datacenters via SCOM?

Marko Todorovic 0 Reputation points
2023-03-27T11:48:55.97+00:00

Hello all,

We've recently had an issue that 1 out of 4 optic links "broke down" between 2 datacenters and SCOM wasn't aware of that.

Even though we have a MP called, "Network Monitoring" (which should be the default one coming up with SCOM installation), is it possible to do this with Operations Manager?

SNMP is enabled and with that, we can monitor all physical equipment (firewall, switches etc.) but is it actually possible to monitor the links so that in case any of the fibers goes out (down, cut off, basically anything), that we can receive an alert from SCOM?

Thanks a lot for your assistance in advance!

Operations Manager
Operations Manager
A family of System Center products that provide infrastructure monitoring, help ensure the predictable performance and availability of vital applications, and offer comprehensive monitoring for datacenters and cloud, both private and public.
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  1. SChalakov 10,261 Reputation points MVP
    2023-03-30T15:56:02.5833333+00:00

    Hi,

    you cannot monitor a link directly, but you can monitor the interfaces that are corresponding to that link. Each link gets terminated somewhere on a network device of some kind. You can get that device monitored with SCOM and then you will know when the link is up or down, depenmding on the interface status.

    That is the closest what you can get to link monitoring with SCOM.

    In order to get any netwoork device monitopred with SCOM, you first need to get your hands on a .MIB file from that device (vendor site, installation media, etc.) and then using the .MIB file and the following tool:

    System Center Operations Manager - Extensible Network Monitoring Management Pack Generator tool

    Here a couple of additional useful references:

    SCOM 2016 – Network Monitoring MP Generator Tool

    #OpsMgr: SNMP Management Pack Generator

    The download link to the tools contains also the guide, which can also help you out.

    Hope this helps.

    (If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)
    Regards
    Stoyan Chalakov

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