Device Templates

What are device templates?

Once you have added a network monitor, you can keep track of all the performance metrics of critical network devices, such as routers, switches, and firewalls, using SNMP. You can also help network teams visualize, monitor, optimize, and manage network devices and interface performance. An important step is selecting a suitable device template as it describes the device for the network to recognize.

Site24x7's device templates contain a predefined set of monitoring parameters for each network device type. Exclusive templates are available for each vendor, and Site24x7 supports more than 450 vendors. You can also create new templates and add them as custom templates to the existing set of 10,000 default templates.

Site24x7 categorizes device templates into different types:

Generic templates natively available in Site24x7
Custom templates that users create
Global templates, which are custom templates created by the users and shared with other Site24x7 users
Admin templates (only for MSP users), which are custom templates created by MSP admins

Additionally, our custom SNMP monitoring allows you to monitor any device and any attribute of that device with support for custom device templates and custom performance counters.

Here is a video to demonstrate device templates:

Where can I use device templates?

Get to know where to use device templates.

Where can I view device templates?

Both default and custom templates are listed in the Device Templates screen. It is easy to navigate to them as the option is available on the main Network tab.

Log in to your Site24x7 account.
Navigate to Network > Device Templates.

How can I add a device template?

If no preset template describes your device accurately, you can create a custom one that fits the device.

Navigate to Network > Device Templates.
On the Device Templates screen, click Add Device Template, located in the top-right corner, and enter the following details as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Adding a device template.
Device Template: Provide a name to identify the template.
Share this template globally with other Site24x7 users: Select Yes if you wish to share your custom template with Site24x7 users.
Vendor: Select a vendor from the drop-down menu or add one by clicking +.
Category: Select the category to which the device belongs.
- You can also add a new custom category by clicking +. In this case, you will have to add a Parent Category first, and then the Category will be a subtype of the parent.
The device will be classified based on the Category or the Parent Category. For instance, if you select Desktop, Server, or Domain Controller in the Category or the Parent Category, the device will be categorized as an agentless server. If you select another option, the device will be categorized as a network device.
Device Identifier: Enter the system object identifier (sysOID).
- You can also click Fetch from device beside the field to fetch the details from the device. To do so, provide the device information as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3.
  
  Figure 2. Fetching the device identifier by providing the monitor name.
  
  Figure 3. Fetching the device identifier by providing the IP address.
Performance Counters: Add or import performance counters.
Add Custom Performance Counters

To add custom performance counters, click the Add Custom Performance Counters button.
- In the MIB BROWSER section, select GENERIC MIBS or CUSTOM MIBS.
  1. GENERIC MIBS: These management information bases (MIBs) are available by default in Site24x7. Select the Vendor and the MIB from the drop-down menus (Fig. 4).
    
    Figure 4. Selecting generic MIBs.
  2. CUSTOM MIBS:You can upload MIBs from your system and use them to add custom performance counters.
    - On-Premise Poller: Selecting an On-Premise Poller will list all the MIBs inside the folder Poller-home/NetworkPlus/mibs. Select the On-Premise Poller that stores the MIB files you have uploaded. If you select Recently Viewed, all the recently used MIBs will be shown.
    - MIB: Select an already uploaded MIB from the drop-down menu.
    Note
    If you click Upload MIB, select files and upload them from your computer on the Upload MIB screen (Fig. 5). Also, select the On-Premise Poller that has to store the MIB files.
    
    Figure 5. Uploading MIBs on the Upload MIB screen.
    
    Note
    If you click Delete MIB, you can select a MIB file that you wish to delete and click Delete.
- The performance counters can be SCALAR, TABULAR, or in TABLE VIEW(you can view them as a table).
  
  SCALAR
  Any SNMP object identifier (OID) that returns a single (or scalar) value will be monitored as a scalar performance counter. Add scalar performance counters by entering the values for the SNMP OID, Name, Description, Unit, Functional Expression, Type, Save Absolute, Format Value, Show in Monitor Summary Page, and Threshold fields. You can enter them manually or use the built-in MIB browser.
  TABULAR
  Any SNMP OID that returns a list of values that belong to the same column of a table will be monitored as a tabular performance counter. Add tabular performance counters by entering the values for the SNMP OID, Name, Description, Unit, Functional Expression, Type, Save Absolute, Format Value, and Show in Monitor Summary Page fields. You can enter them manually or use the built-in MIB browser.
  - Selecting a table on the MIB allows you to create a table view, this includes all the corresponding tabular performance counters. Select Yes for the Show in Monitor Summary Page field if you wish to show the performance counters on the monitor summary page.
  - Unit: Enter the unit of the performance counter to be displayed on the alerts.
  - Functional Expression: Select an option from the drop-down menu to convert the performance counter value to the appropriate metric—for example, Bytes to kB (Fig. 6).
    
    Figure 6. Selecting an option for Functional Expression.
  - Type: If the value fetched by the SNMP OID is numerical, then select Numeric for the Type. Otherwise, select String. Please use the Test button (as explained in the "Import Performance Counters" section of this help doc) to verify the type of value returned (Fig. 7, marked as 1).
    
    Figure 7. Adding tabular performance counters.
  - Save Absolute
    This option is available for scalar and tabular performance counters and is useful for OIDs that are like counters for a specific metric. An OID of counter type will continue incrementing until it reaches its limit. It then resets, and will continue to increase.
    
    An example of this is ifInOctets (.1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.10), which represents the total number of octets received on the interface. When queried, this OID will return the overall number of octets received in the particular interface. The value keeps increasing over time, as it is a counter.
    
    if Save Absolute is set to Yes, then the absolute value will be displayed (Figure 9, marked as 1). However, if you set Save Absolute to No for this OID(Figure 9, marked as 2), then the difference between the last two polls will be calculated and displayed as the value.
    
    Note
    If the OID's Unit (or syntax in MIB file) is Counter, toggling to No fetches the value as the difference between the last two polls. Toggling to Yes gets the absolute value received in each poll.
    If the OID's Unit (or syntax in MIB file) is Integer, toggling to Yes fetches the value as the difference between the last two polls. Toggling to No gets the absolute value received in each poll.
    
    Figure 8. Save absolute for counter type performance counter.
    Consider two performance counters for the ifInOctets OID, with the Save Absolute value set to Yes for one and No for the other.
    These are the actual SNMP query responses for the OID over 15 minutes:
    03:00:00 - .1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.10.1 -> 10000
    03:05:00 - .1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.10.1 -> 15000
    03:10:00 - .1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.10.1 -> 18000
    Value for the performance counter with Save Absolute set as Yes:
    03:00:00 -> 10000
    03:05:00 -> 15000
    03:10:00 -> 18000
    
    Value for the performance counter with Save Absolute set as No:
    03:00:00 -> No data (as there is no previous poll to calculate the difference)
    03:05:00 -> 5000
    03:10:00 -> 3000
    
    Figure 9. Save absolute for counter type performance counter.
  - Format Value: Selecting Yes allows you to provide a meaningful description for an integer value. For instance, if the admin status is returned as a numerical value, then the display value can be provided as Up or Down instead of showing the number in the alert message (Fig. 7, marked as 2).
  - Show in Monitor Summary Page: Selecting this allows you to view the performance counters that will be displayed on the monitor summary page.
  - Threshold: Enable alerts on any breach of predefined conditions that you set.
    
    Figure 10. Setting thresholds in Add Custom Performance Counter pop-up.
  TABLE VIEW
  A table view displays selected performance counters. Provide a name and select the tabular performance counters to be displayed as individual columns in a table. You can also select a table directly from the MIB and view it here.
  
  Note
  A table can contain a maximum of nine columns. The rest of the selected counters will be added as individual tables.
  - Show in Monitor Summary Page: Toggle Yes to choose if the performance counter has to be displayed on the monitor summary page.
  - Show Index Column: Toggle to Yes to show the index column on the Tabular Performance Counters screen.
  - In the Tabular Performance Counter section, select Add to Table View to view the performance counter on the table view or delete the record if it is not required on the view.
  - Column of the Table View to be displayed in the Alert: Choose a column name to include in alerts generated, so that you can obtain a clear picture of which tabular performance counter in the table has generated alert. Consider a Table View with two tabular performance counters (columns) namely "Sensor Failures" and "Sensor Description". If you choose the column "Sensor Description", then your alert will be: Sensor Failures-.3 for (Power Supply 2 Sensor) exceeds 5 units.
    
    Figure 11. Adding performance counters to Table View.
- Click Add. Then click Save.
Import Performance Counters

You can also import the performance counters available in other device templates by clicking the Import Performance Counters button.
- Select the performance counter you want to import from Generic, Custom, or Global templates on the Import Performance Counters screen. Then click Import. You can now see the performance counter has been added to the device template.
- To verify that the performance counter can fetch data for your device, click the pencil icon beside it.
- Click Test beside the SNMP OID field on the Edit Custom Performance Counter screen.
- On the Test Performance Counter screen, select an option in the Test using field.
  1. If you select Monitor Name (Fig. 12):
    - Select an option for Monitor Name from the drop-down menu.
    - Select the credential in the Credential Name field.
    - Verify the SNMP OID and the Type of the performance counter.
    - Click Test.
      
      Figure 12. Testing a performance counter with the monitor name.
  2. If you select IP address (Fig. 13):
    - Enter the value in the IP address field.
    - Select the correct On-Premise Poller.
    - Select the credential in the Credential Name field.
    - Verify the SNMP OID and the Type of the performance counter.
    - Click Test.
      
      Figure 13. Testing a performance counter with the IP address.
Table Views: View consolidated tables of the tabular performance counters you added while adding custom performance counters. You can create an all-new table view from here if you have not created one yet.
Custom Monitor Metrics: You can configure monitor-level metrics for your device type by providing a custom performance counter. Click Configure Custom Monitor Metrics. On the Custom Monitor Metrics screen, select the custom metrics for the performance counters of CPU Utilization, Memory Utilization, Manufacturer, Serial Number, Model Name, and System Uptime (hours) from the drop-down menus (Fig. 14). You can also click the Test button for each to see if the right value is fetched before adding it.

Figure 14. Configuring custom monitor metrics.

Note
CPU Utilization and Memory Utilization can only be numeric values, while the rest can be either numeric or a string.
Show in Monitor Summary Page: Selecting Yes allows you to view the performance counters that will be displayed on the monitor summary page. If needed, you can select and add more to your desired performance counters and tables.
Click Save to save the custom template. Click Save and Associate to associate the template with a set of network devices.