NetXMS User Guide

Release 4.2.433

Raden Solutions, SIA

May 19, 2023

 CONTENTS

1 Introduction 1
1.1 About this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Target audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 Basic Concepts 3
2.1 Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1.1 Object status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1.2 Unmanaged status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1.3 Maintenance mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2 Data Collection Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2.1 Thresholds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.3 Events and Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4 Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

3 User Interface 9
3.1 Login . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2 Workbench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.3 Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.3.1 Rearranging views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.3.2 Drop cursors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.3.3 Maximizing and minimizing views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.4 Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.4.1 New perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.4.2 Saving perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.5 Object Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.5.1 Object status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.5.2 Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.6 Object Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.6.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.6.2 Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.6.3 Last Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.6.4 Performance Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.7 Network Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.8 Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.9 Dashboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.10 Business Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

4 Mobile Console 27
4.1 Main window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.2 Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.3 Dashboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.4 Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.5 Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

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 4.6 MACaddress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.7 Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.8 Global settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.9 Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.9.1 Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.9.2 Scheduler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.10 Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.10.1 Connection status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.10.2 Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.11 Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.11.1 Multipliers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.11.2 Graph text size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.11.3 Show legend in graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

5 Object management 39
5.1 Object browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.1.1 Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.1.2 Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.2 Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.2.1 Subnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.2.2 Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.2.3 Mobile Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.2.4 Rack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.2.5 Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.2.6 Intrface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.2.7 Network Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.2.8 VPN Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.2.9 Condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.2.10 Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.3 Object Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.3.1 Subnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.4 Object Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.5 Last DCI values View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

6 Network topology 43
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.2 How topology information built . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.3 Find where node is connected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.4 Find MAC address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6.5 Find IP address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

7 Glossary 45

Index 47

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 CHAPTER

ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 About this document

The User Manual describes the main aspects of NetXMS monitoring system. This manual enables all users to get
an overview of the various functionalities of NetXMS. The main aspects outlined in here describe the possibilities
and functionaries of the NetXMS interface and elucidate working processes.

1.2 Target audience

This manual is intended for NetXMS operators, and provides all information necessary to successfully operate
NetXMS.

1.3 Conventions

The following typographical conventions are used in this manual.

Sample Description
Button Any GUI element: Button, Menu item
Another Guide Reference to external manual or man page
Control-M Keyboard shortcut
DCI Term which could be found in glossary
File → Exit Menu selection path, you must click on File, then Exit

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 CHAPTER

TWO

BASIC CONCEPTS

2.1 Objects

All monitored network infrastructure is represented as a set of objects in NetXMS monitoring system. Each object
represents one physical or logical entity (e.g. host or network interface), or group of them (e.g. subnet, container).
Objects are organized into hierarchical structure. Each object has it’s own access rights. Access rights are applied
hierarchically on all children of object. For example if Read access right is granted to a user on a Container, then
user has Read right on all objects that this Container contains. Every object has set of attributes; some of them
exist for all objects (like id and name or status), while other depend on object class – for example, only Node objects
have attribute SNMP community string. There are default attributes and custom attributes defined either by user or
external application via NetXMS API.
NetXMS has six top level objects – Entire Network, Service Root (named “Infrastructure Services” after
system installation), Template Root, Network Map Root, Dashboard Root and Business Service Root.
These objects serve as an abstract root for an appropriate object tree. All top level objects have only one editable
attribute – name.

Object Class Description Valid Child Objects

Entire Network Abstract object representing root of IP topology tree.
All zone and subnet objects located under it. System • Zone (if zoning enabled)
can have only one object of this class. • Subnet (if zoning dis-
abled)

Zone Object representing group of (usually interconnected)

IP networks without overlapping addresses. Contains • Subnet
appropriate subnet objects.
Subnet Object representing IP subnet. Typically objects of
this class are created automatically by the system to • Node
reflect system’s knowledge of IP topology. The sys-
tem places Node objects inside an appropriate Subnet
object based on an interface configuration. Subnet ob-
jects have only one editable attribute - Name.
Node Object representing physical host or network device
(such as a router or network switch). These objects • Interface
can be created either manually by administrator or au- • Access point
tomatically during network discovery process. They • Network Service
have a lot of attributes controlling all aspects of in- • VPN Connector
teraction between NetXMS server and managed node.
For example, the attributes specify what data must be
collected, how node status must be checked, which
protocol versions to use, etc. Node objects contain one
or more interface objects. The system creates interface
objects automatically during configuration polls.
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Table 1 – continued from previous page

Object Class Description Valid Child Objects
Interface Interface objects represent network interfaces of man-
aged computers and devices. These objects created
automatically by the system during configuration polls
or can be created manually by user.
Access point Object representing wireless network access point. A
node can have several access points, e.g. 2.4Ghz and
5Ghz, or in case of thin wireless access points man-
aged by a central controller. These objects are created
automatically by the system.
Network Service Object representing network service running on a
node (like http or ssh), which is accessible online (via
TCP IP). Network Service objects are always created
manually. Currently, the system works with the fol-
lowing protocols - HTTP, POP3, SMTP, Telnet, SSH
and Custom protocol type.
VPN Connector Object representing VPN tunnel endpoint. Such ob-
jects can be created to add VPN tunnels to network
topology known to NetXMS server. VPN Connec-
tor objects are created manually. In case if there is a
VPN connection linking two different networks open
between two firewalls that are added to the system as
objects, a user can create a VPN Connector object on
each of the firewall objects and link one to another.
The network topology will now show that those two
networks are connected and the system will take this
condition into account during problem analysis and
event correlation.
Service Root Abstract object representing root of your infrastruc-
ture service tree. System can have only one object of • Cluster
this class. After system installation it is named “In- • Chassis
frastructure Services”. • Condition
• Container
• Node
• Sensor
• Subnet
• Rack

Container Grouping object which can contain any type of objects

that Service Root can contain. With help of container • Cluster
objects you can build object’s tree which represents • Chassis
logical hierarchy of IT services in your organization. • Condition
• Container
• Node
• Sensor
• Subnet
• Rack

Cluster Object representing cluster consisting of two or more

nodes. • Node

Rack Object representing a rack. It has the same purpose as

container, but allows to configure visual representation • Node
of equipment installed in a rack. • Chassis

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Table 1 – continued from previous page

Object Class Description Valid Child Objects
Chassis Object representing a chassis, e.g. a blade server en-
closure. Chassis can be configured as a part of a rack. • Node

Condition Object representing complicated condition – like “cpu

on node1 is overloaded and node2 is down for more
than 10 minutes”. Conditions may represent more
complicated status checks because each condition can
have a script attached. Interval for evaluation of condi-
tion status is configured in Server Configuration Vari-
ables as ConditionPollingInterval with default value
60 seconds.
Template Root Abstract object representing root of your template tree.
• Template
• Template Group

Template Group Grouping object which can contain templates or other

template groups. • Template
• Template Group

Template Data collection template.

• Mobile Device
• Node

Network Map Root Abstract object representing root of your network map
tree. • Network Map
• Network Map Group

Network Map Grouping object which can contain network maps or

Group other network map groups. • Network Map
• Network Map Group

Network Map Network map.

Dashboard Root Abstract object representing root of your dashboard
tree. • Dashboard

Dashboard Dashboard. Can contain other dashboards.

• Dashboard

Business Service Abstract object representing root of your business ser-

Root vice tree. System can have only one object of this • Business Service
class. • Business Service Proto-
type

Business Service Object representing single business service. Can con-

tain other business services or business service proto- • Business Service
types. • Business Service Proto-
type

Business Service Prototype from which business service objects are au-
Prototype tomatically populated.

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2.1.1 Object status

Each object has a status. Status of an object calculated based on:

• Polling results
• Status of child objects (e.g. interfaces of node, nodes under container)
• Active alarms, associated with the object (after an alarm is resolved or terminated, it no longer affects object
status)
• Value of status DCIs (DCI that has Use this DCI for node status calculation property enabled)
For some object classes, like Report or Template, status is irrelevant. Status for such objects is always Normal.
Object’s status can be one of the following:

Nr. Status Description

0 Normal Object is in normal state.
1 Warning Warning(s) exist for the object.
2 Minor Minor problem(s) exist for the object.
3 Major Major problem(s) exist for the object.
4 Critical Critical problem(s) exist for the object.
5 Unknown Object’s status is unknown to the management server.
6 Unmanaged Object is set to “unmanaged” state.
7 Disabled Object is administratively disabled (only applicable to interface ob-
jects).
8 Testing Object is in testing state (only applicable to interface objects).

2.1.2 Unmanaged status

Objects can be unmanaged. In this status object is not polled, DCIs are not collected, no data is updated about
object. This status can be used to store data about an object that is temporary or permanently unavailable or not
managed.

2.1.3 Maintenance mode

This is special status, that’s why it is not included in above status list. This status prevents event processing for
specific node. While this node in maintenance mode is still polled and DCI data is still collected, but no event is
generated.

2.2 Data Collection Items

Every node can have many parameters, such as CPU utilization, amount of free memory or disk space usage.
The management server can collect these parameters, check them for threshold violations and store them in the
database. In NetXMS, parameters configured for collection are called Data Collection Items or DCI for short. One
DCI represents one node’s parameter, and unlimited number of DCIs can be configured for any node.

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2.2.1 Thresholds

Each threshold is a combination of a condition and event pair. If a condition becomes true, associated “activation”
event is generated, and when it becomes false again, “deactivation” event generated. Thresholds let you take
a proactive approach to network management. Thresholds can be defined for any data collection items that is
monitored, more than one threshold for a single DCI can be defined.

2.3 Events and Alarms

Many services within NetXMS gather information and generate events that are forwarded to NetXMS Event Queue.
Events can also be emitted from agents on managed nodes, or from management applications residing on the
management station or on specific network nodes. All events are processed by NetXMS Event Processor one-by-
one, according to the processing rules defined in Event Processing Policy. As a result of event processing, some
actions can be taken, and event can be shown up as alarm, sent as e-mail and notifications (SMS, instant messages).
NetXMS provides one centralized location - the Alarm Browser, where the alarms are visible to your team. You
can control which events should be considered important enough to show up as alarms. You and your team can
easily monitor the posted alarms and take appropriate actions to preserve the health of your network.
Examples of alarms include:
• A router exceeded its threshold of traffic volume that you configured in Data Collection.
• The shell script that you wrote gathered the specific information you needed and posted it to the NetXMS as
an event.
• One of your mission-critical servers switched to UPS battery power.
• An SNMP agent on a managed critical server forwarded a trap to NetXMS because it was overheating and
about to fail.

2.4 Zones

As NetXMS server keeps track of an IP topology, it is important to maintain the configuration in which IP addresses
do not overlap and that two IP addresses from same subnet are really within one subnet. Sometimes, however, it
is needed to monitor multiple sites with overlapping IP address ranges. To correctly handle such situation, zoning
must be used. Zone in NetXMS is a group of IP subnets which form non-overlapping IP address space. There is
always zone 0 which contains subnets directly reachable by management server. For all other zones server assumes
that subnets within that zones are not reachable directly, and proxy must be used.

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 CHAPTER

THREE

USER INTERFACE

Note: One of the goals of NetXMS Management Console is to provide identical user experience across all sup-
ported platforms, including Web Interface. Screenshots in this particular guide are based on Mac OS X version.

3.1 Login

Fig. 1: Login Dialog

When Management Console is started, user is presented with login dialog. User should enter server host name or
IP address, login and password.

3.2 Workbench

When user is authenticated, a single Workbench window is displayed. A Workbench window offers one or more
perspectives. A perspective contains views, such as the Object Browser. Multiple Workbench windows can be
opened simultaneously. Initially, in the first Workbench window that is opened, the Management perspective is
displayed, with Object Browser and Object Details views visible. A shortcut bar appears in the top right corner of
the window. This allows you to open new perspectives and switch between ones already open. The name of the
active perspective is shown in the title of the window and its item in the shortcut bar is highlighted.

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Fig. 2: Shortcut bar, Management perspective is selected

3.3 Views

The primary use of Views is to provide convenient navigation through the information displayed in Workbench. A
view might appear by itself or stacked with other views in a tabbed notebook. To activate a view that is part of a
tabbed notebook simply click its tab. Views have two menus. The first menu, which is accessed by right-clicking
on the view’s tab, allows the view to be manipulated in much the same manner as the menu associated with the
Workbench window. The second menu, called the “view pull-down menu”, is accessed by clicking the down arrow
. The view pull-down menu typically contains operations that apply to the entire contents of the view, but not to
a specific item shown in the view.
A view can be displayed by selecting it from the appropriate View, Monitor, or Configuration menu, or via Window
→ Show View menu. A perspective determines which views may be required and displays these on the Show
View sub-menu. Additional views are available by choosing command link Other at the bottom of the Show View
sub-menu. This is just one of the many features that provide for the creation of a custom work environment.
Through the normal course of using the Workbench you will open, move, resize, and close views. If you’d like to
restore the perspective back to its original state, you can select the Window → Reset Perspective menu operation.

3.3.1 Rearranging views

You can change the position of any view in the Workbench by following the steps below:
1. Click in the title bar of the view and drag the view across the Workbench window. Do not release the mouse
button yet.
2. While still dragging the view around on top of the Workbench window, note that various drop cursors appear.
These Drop cursors indicate where the view will dock in relation to the view underneath the cursor when the
mouse button is released. Notice also that a rectangular highlight is drawn that provides additional feedback
on where the view will dock.
3. Dock the view in any position in the Workbench window, and view the results of this action.

3.3.2 Drop cursors

Drop cursors indicate where it is possible to dock a part in the Workbench window. Several different drop cursors
may be displayed when rearranging a part.

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Dock above: If the mouse button is released when this cursor is displayed, the part will appear above the
part underneath the cursor.
Dock below: If the mouse button is released when this cursor is displayed, the part will appear below the
part underneath the cursor.
Dock to the left: If the mouse button is released when this cursor is displayed, the part will appear to the
left of the part underneath the cursor.
Dock to the right: If the mouse button is released when this cursor is displayed, the part will appear to the
right of the part underneath the cursor.
Stack: If the mouse button is released when this cursor is displayed, the part will appear as a tab in the
same pane as the part underneath the cursor.
Restricted: If the mouse button is released when this cursor is displayed, the part will not dock there.

3.3.3 Maximizing and minimizing views

The console presentation provides a rich environment consisting of one or more View Stacks (each containing one
or more views). These various parts compete for valuable screen real-estate and correctly managing the amount of
screen given to each can greatly enhance your productivity within the console. The two most common mechanisms
for managing this issue are “minimize” (i.e. make me use as little space as possible) and “maximize” (i.e. give me
as much space as you can). The console presentation provides a variety of ways to access these operations:
• Using the minimize and maximize buttons provided on a stack’s border
• Using the minimize and maximize buttons provided on a stack’s border
• Selecting the Minimize or Maximize item on the context (right-click) menu for a stack
• Double-clicking on a stack
• Using Control + M: this is a key binding for a command that will toggle the currently active part between
its “maximized” and its “restored” (i.e. normal) states.

Maximize

It is desirable at times to focus your attention on one particular view to the exclusion of the others. Console
implements the maximize behavior by minimizing all stacks except the one being maximized. This allows the
maximized stack to completely occupy the main presentation while still allowing to access any open views in your
perspective by using the icons in their Trim Stack (the area around the edges of the window is called the “trim”).

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Minimize

Another way to optimize the use of the screen area is to directly minimize stacks that are of no current interest.
Minimizing a stack will cause it to be moved into the trim area at the edges of the workbench window, creating a
Trim Stack. View Stack will get minimized into a trim representation that contains the icons for each view in the
stack:

Fig. 3: Stacked Views

Fig. 4: Views minimized into Trim Stack

3.4 Perspectives

A perspective defines the initial set and layout of views in the Workbench window. One or more perspectives can
exist in a single Workbench window. Perspectives can be opened in one of two ways:
1. In the same (existing) Workbench window.
2. In a new Workbench window.
Perspectives define visible action sets, which can be changed to customize a perspective. A perspective that is built
in this manner can be saved, creating a custom perspective that can be opened again later.

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3.4.1 New perspectives

There are several ways to open a new perspective within this Workbench window:
• Using the Open Perspective button on the shortcut bar.
• Choosing a perspective from the Window → Open Perspective menu.
To open one by using the shortcut bar button:
1. Click on the Open Perspective button .
2. A menu appears showing the same choices as shown on the Window → Open Perspective menu. Select
perspective from the list or choose Other (in that case additional Select Perspective dialog will be opened).
Icons of recently used perspectives will be placed on shortcut bar for quick selection.

3.4.2 Saving perspectives

The Workbench allows any current view layout to be saved for future use. To save current layout as new perspective:
1. Choose Window → Save Perspective As from main menu.
2. The Save Perspective As dialog allows for an existing perspective to be redefined or for a new perspective to
be created. Select existing perspective to redefine or type name of new perspective, and click OK.
3. Answer Yes to the subsequent confirmation dialog. The new perspective layout will be used if the perspective
is reset or if a new one is opened.

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3.5 Object Browser

Object browser represents all objects in the system as a tree with multiple root objects. Tree is built based on object
hierarchy and user permissions. Only objects available to currently logged in user will be shown. User has two
options to interact with objects:
• Click Left mouse button to select object and display its details (see Object Details)
• Click Right mouse button to open context menu with actions available for this particular object type

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Fig. 5: Popup menu for object type Node

3.5.1 Object status

System track status of each object, which can range from Minor to Critical. Status is displayed as overlay on icon
of each object.

3.5.2 Filtering

Above object tree there is filter field that allows to filter objects in the object tree. Filter supports a number of prefix
characters that define how search is performed:

Prefix Status
> Search by IP address part
^ Search by exact IP address
# Search by object ID
/ Search by comment
@ Search by zone ID

Without prefix search is performed by object name.

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Fig. 6: As-you-type filter in action

3.6 Object Details

This view provides one or more tabs with detailed information about object currently selected in Object Browser.
List of available tabs depends on type of the selected object.

Fig. 7: Additional row of tabs (node with NetXMS agent selected in Object Browser)

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3.6.1 Overview

Fig. 8: Overview tab

This view provides basic information about selected object: Name, Class, Status and comments. For Node objects,
it also show IP address, Host name, SNMP details as well as Capabilities.

Node capabilities

Capability Description
isAgent True if NetXMS Server can communicate with NetXMS agent installed on the node
isRouter True if selected object can route network traffic
isSNMP True if selected object is SNMP-capable

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3.6.2 Alarms

Alarm view provides user with list of alarms for currently selected element of the tree, including all child objects.
To view all alarms in the system, either use system-wide Alarm Browser (click View → Alarm Browser to open)
or select Entire Network object. Right-click on the alarm will open pop-up menu with available actions

Fig. 9: Alarm context menu

Each alarm can be in one of three different states:

State Description
Outstanding Newly created alarm, no actions was taken by user
Acknowledged User acknowledged raised issue, work in progress
Resolved Issue resolved, but alarm is kept in the list. This state mostly used when alarm
is automatically resolved by the system, to keep users informed about incident
Terminated Issue resolved and alarm removed from list.

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3.6.3 Last Values

This view provides access to all collected data, both latest and historical. When view is shown, it displays latest
values, as well as timestamp when each value was collected. Threshold column indicates threshold violations for
given DCI. User has two options to interact with data:
• Double click on the DCI will open line graph view for last hour
• Right-click on the DCI will open pop-up menu giving access to all available actions
– History - show historical data
– Line Chart, Pie Chart, Bar Chart - show historical data in graphical form
– Clear collected data - remove all history for selected DCI

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Fig. 10: Line graph built from collected data

3.6.4 Performance Tab

Performance tab is a special view that allows to quickly assess health of the selected node using one or more graphs
predefined by administrator. Each graph can contain data from multiple sources.

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Fig. 11: Router’s CPU usage displayed

3.7 Network Maps

This view allows user to see network overview in a map form. Map can be build and routed either manually or
automatically for selected part of the network. Maps can be automatically generated based on:
• IP topology, both Level 2 and Level 3
• Geographical location of the objects
• Object relations

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Fig. 12: Geo map showing part of the ATM network

To open existing map, either double click on the name in Object Browser or right-click and select Open map in
pop-up menu.

3.8 Reports

NetXMS is integrated with Jasper reporting engine from Jaspersoft. This view allows user to generate report
and download result as PDF file. Report generation can take long time, so it’s done in background, without user
interaction. When report is generated, resulting PDF can be downloaded any time, as well as any result from
previous runs.

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To generate report:
• Right-click on report name in Object Browser and select Open report in pop-up menu, report view will open
(as show in figure above)
• In report view, fill parameters and click Generate Report
You can monitor progress in Server Jobs view. To open it, select Window → Show view → Other → Server Jobs.
When report is generated, new finished job will appear in Results table of the view. Select it and click on Render
to PDF to download.
When generated report data is not longer needed, it can be deleted from the sever by selecting job in Results view,
and then clicking Delete.

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3.9 Dashboards

Fig. 13: Dashboard showing traffic information from core router.

Dashboards are defined by administrator and allow to combine any available visualization components with data
from multiple sources in order to create high-level views to see network (or parts of it) health at a glance. There
are two ways to access dashboards:
• Open dashboard from Object Browser
• Switch to Dashboard perspective and select dashboard with left-click

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Fig. 14: Dashboards perspective

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3.10 Business Services

Fig. 15: Availability chart and uptime percentage for a system.

Business Services is a hierarchy of logical services as defined by administrator. Each service can represent com-
bined state of multiple elements. For each service in the hierarchy, NetXMS calculates availability percentage and
keeps track of all downtime cases. To check availability of any particular level, select it in Object Browser.

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 CHAPTER

FOUR

MOBILE CONSOLE

NetXMS mobile console is a monitoring tool for Android devices running version 2.2. and later.
Currently, only a small subset of the functions present in the Desktop/Web edition are implemented, mainly
read/only operations. The next paragraphs briefly describes each section.

4.1 Main window

Here you can see how appears the main window and the underneath levels.

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From the main window it is possible to get access to the following menu items:
• Settings: select this item to configure the console.
• Reconnect: select this item to force a reconnection to the server to gather new collected data.
• Disconnect & Exit: select this item to stop the console and exit from the app.
Underneath levels have menu that are context dependent, a detailed description can be found in each section.

4.2 Alarms

Alarms section is used to list and manage all pending alarms, eventually filtered on a particular node/container.
Through this view it is possible to manage alarms:
• Actions:
– Acknowledge: acknowledge the alarm.
– Sticky acknowledge: sticky acknowledge the alarm.
– Resolve: resolve the alarm.
– Terminate: terminate the alarm.
– View last values: jump to the node info section to view the last values for the node that generated
the alarm.
• Sort:
– Sort by severity ascending: sort list using event severity as criteria, ascending.
– Sort by severity descending: sort list using event severity as criteria, descending.
– Sort by date ascending: sort list using date of event as criteria, ascending.
– Sort by date descending: sort list using date of event as criteria, descending.

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– Sort by node name ascending: sort list using node name that generated the event as criteria, as-
cending.
– Sort by node name descending: sort list using node name that generated the event as criteria,
descending.
• Select all: select all the alarms from the list
• Unselect all: clear any selection of alarms from the list

4.3 Dashboard

Dashboards are defined by administrator and allow to combine any available visualization components with data
from multiple sources in order to create high-level views to see network (or parts of it) health at a glance. Not
all elements are currently available for the mobile console, dashboards are properly refreshed according to their
schedule. Due to dashboard size, keep in mind that Smartphones cannot be the best device to show them, a tablet
is much more suitable device. Here an example:

4.4 Nodes

This section is used to list and manage all nodes (all network infrastructure monitored by NetXMS are represented
as a set of objects. Each object represents one physical or logical entity, or group of them). Objects can be organized
into hierarchical structure, the Nodes section is used to explore them. In the right bottom corner of the icon there is
a symbol that indicates the status of the node/container following the same simbology used on the desktop console.
Clicking on a container will show the items inside, continuing to click up to an object will show a set of swipeable
pages:
• Overview: here are presented the main info associated to this node, such as the name, the primary IP, the
status, etc.
• Alarms: here are presented the list of pending alarms (if any) for this node, with the possibility to
manage them with the following commands:

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– Actions:
∗ Acknowledge: acknowledge the alarm.
∗ Sticky acknowledge: sticky acknowledge the alarm.
∗ Resolve: resolve the alarm.
∗ Terminate: terminate the alarm.
∗ View last values: jump to the node info section to view the last values for the node that
generated the alarm.
– Select all: select all the alarms from the list
– Unselect all: clear any selection of alarms from the list
• Last values: here are presented the DCI collected for this node, as well as the possibility to draw the
following graphics (for one or more values):
– Last half hour: draw one or more line graphs for the last half hour collected values
– Last hour: draw one or more line graphs for the last hour collected values
– Last two hours: draw one or more line graphs for the last two hours collected values
– Last four hours: draw one or more line graphs for the last four hours collected values
– Last day: draw one or more line graphs for the last day collected values
– Last week: draw one or more line graphs for the last week collected values
– Bar chart: draw a bar chart with the last collected value
– Pie chart: draw a pie chart with the last collected value
• Interfaces: here are presented all the interfaces associated to this node. For each interface it is
possible to instruct the following commands:
– Manage: interface will be put in manage state
– Unanage: interface will be put in unmanage state
– Change expected state: change the expected interface state, possible values:
∗ UP: interface expected state will be put in UP state
∗ DOWN: interface expected state will be put in DOWN state
∗ IGNORE: interface expected state will be put in IGNORE state
• Find switch port: will start the search for a connection point (if available)

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4.5 Graphics

Predefined graphics are defined by administrator and can be used to view collected data in a graphical form (as a
line chart). Currently, the mobile console doesn’t autorefresh the content of the graphic selected. Here an example
of a predefined graphs:

4.6 MACaddress

This section is used to list previously searched MAC addresses or to start a new search by scanning a barcode value
(this feature needs the installation of Barcode Scanner from Zxing Team – freely available on the Google Play), by
input it manually or by getting it directly from a node via the “Find Switch port” command.

4.7 Settings

This section is used to configure the behaviour of the console.

4.8 Global settings

• Autostart on boot: check to automatically start the agent on boot (to be effective, app must not be moved to
SD card).

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4.9 Connection

4.9.1 Parameters

Allows selecting the parameters used to connect to the server:

• Server: address of the server (IP or name).
• Port: port of the server (default 4701).
• User name: username to connect to the server.
• Password: password to connect to the server.
• Encrypt connection: when selected challenges an encryption strategy with the server (depending on sup-
ported/configured providers).

4.9.2 Scheduler

Enables the possibility to define periodic connections to the server. If the scheduler is not enabled the app will try
to connect to the server every time it detects a new connection (data or WiFi) and remains always connected as far
as the connection remains active:
• Enable scheduler: check this to enable the scheduler.
• Frequency (min): amount of time, in minutes, that has to elapse between each tentative of connection to the
server to send the gathered info.
• Duration (min): amount of time, in minutes, that has to elapse before disconnect from the server.
• Daily scheduler: provides the ability to define a “one range” daily on which the agent is operational.
Out of the specified range the app will not try to connect to the server to gather the new events:
– Daily activation on: start time for daily activation.
– Daily activation off : stop time for daily activation.

4.10 Notifications

4.10.1 Connection status

This section is to manage the notifications related to the connection status.

• Notification behaviour: defines which kind of action should trigger notifications to the user. Possible
options:
– Never: ignore connection status
– When connected: notify when connection is successful
– When disconnected: notify when connection is unsuccessful
– Always: notify either connection successful and connection unsuccessful
• Toast notification: provides connection notification via “toast” , behaviour is defined by “Notification be-
haviour”.<br />
• Icon notification: provides connection notification via icon in the status bar, behaviour is defined by “Noti-
fication behaviour”.

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4.10.2 Alarms

• Alarms notification: select to enable alarms notification in the status bar.

• Alarms sound by severity: for each of the following categories:
– Normal
– Warning
– Minor
– Major
– Critical

4.11 Interface

4.11.1 Multipliers

Allows to select the preferred multipliers to be used to show values. Allowed options: * None: do not apply
multiplier, values are extended. * Decimal: applies a decimal multiplier (power of 10, e.g. 1000 -> 1K, 1000000
-> 1M, . . . ) * Binary: applies a binary multiplier (power of 2, e.g. 1024 -> 1Ki, 1048576 -> 1Mi, . . . )

4.11.2 Graph text size

Allows to set the text size to be used for axis labels (if the default value is too small for high density devices).

4.11.3 Show legend in graphs

Allows to select to show or not the legend in the top right angle of the graphs. Since legend can be intrusive,
especially when there are several lines plotted, user can select to disable the legend.

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 CHAPTER

FIVE

OBJECT MANAGEMENT

5.1 Object browser

Object browser organize all existing objects in hierarchical structure. NetXMS has eight top level objects – Entire
Network, Service Root, Template Root, Policy Root, Network Map Root, Dashboard Root, Report Root, and Busi-
ness Service Root. These objects served as an abstract root for appropriate object tree. All top level objects has
only one editable attribute – name.
Overall description about objects can be found in concepts part: Objects.

5.1.1 Properties

Object browser has next options:

• Show filter CTRL+F2, that shows search line that has special syntaxes for search. Syntaxes description
can be found there: Filters.
• Show status indicator CTRL+F3
• Hide unmanaged objects
• Hide check templates. This option will not show Business Services templates.

5.1.2 Filters

Buy default search is done by node name. In this type of search can be used ‘*’ and ‘?’ symbols for pattern search.
But there are few prefix that can be used for other search options:
• ‘/’ - will search in comments
• ‘>’ - will search by IP address

5.2 Objects

Detailed information about objects, it’s usage, parents and childes can be found in concept chapter, Objects. In this
section will be described only actions and properties that can be applied on different object classes.
Next chapters will describe

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5.2.1 Subnet

Menu items:
Full subnet can be managed or unamanged. Management status will be applied to all subnet node. If subnet is
deleted and is the only parent of a node, then node also will be deleted with the subnet. Upload file menu item will
upload file from server to all nodes that have agent and have access to upload directory.
Under Tools menu are available predefined object tools that will be executed on each subnet node. More about
object tool configuration can be found there: Object Tools.
Alarms menu item will open view with all subnet nodes’ alarms. And 802.1x port state will open table with port
authentication states, that can be exported to CSV.

5.2.2 Node

Menu items:
When node is unmanaged/managed - all it’s childes like interfaces and service monitoring are also unman-
aged/managed. In unmanaged state metrics are not collected and no pols are scheduled.
If zones are enabled, then zone can be changed using Change zone. . . item. File manager will open agent file
manager view. Upload file can be used to upload file from server to node. This action can be applied simultaneously
to all nodes.
Take screenshot for now halfway implemented functionality. For now screenshot can be taken only from Windows
machines.
Poll options:

Poll Name Description

Status
Configuration
Configuration (full)
Instance discovery
Instance names
Topology

Under Tools menu are available predefined object tools that will be executed on selected node. More about object
tool configuration can be found there: Object Tools.
If geolocation of the node is set, then with help of Geolocation item can be opened map with shown on it object
location. Software Inventory will show full software list for nodes with Windows systems or Linux systems(that
used rpn or deb packages) and have NetXMS agent installed. Service Dependency will build tree from this node
with all container where this node is included. Alarms will open alarm view with alarms only for this specific node.
Find switch port will open view with log of searchs of switch port that with which this node is connected. Wile
search we will check one by one interfaces and will show first successful result.
802.1x port state will open table with port authentication states, that can be exported to CSV.
Topology menu item contains all options of predefined network maps for this node and some other options:
Routing table IP route from. . . will build network map with route from selected node to node that is selected
from Object selector window. IP route to. . . will build network map with route to selected node from node that is
selected from Object selector window. IP Neighbors will show all IP neighbors of this node.
Switch forwarding database(MAC address table) VLANs Layer 2 Topology
Radio interface Wirless stations
Last values will open Last Values view.

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5.2.3 Mobile Device

Menu items:
Each phone object can be managed/unmanaged and deleted. In umnanaged state metrics of this device are not
collected and no pols are scheduled. When mobile object is deleted all it’s data is also deleted. No history data
will be left.
Geolocation History will open view were will be shown history of displacement of this device. From the menu can
be selected the period to show on history map. Geolocation will show last known location of this device. Alarms
menu item will open view with all subnet nodes’ alarms.
Last values will open Last Values view.

5.2.4 Rack

5.2.5 Cluster

5.2.6 Intrface

5.2.7 Network Service

5.2.8 VPN Connector

5.2.9 Condition

Conditions may represent more complicated status checks because each condition can have a script attached. Inter-
val for evaluation of condition status is configured in Server Configuration Variables as ConditionPollingInterval
with default value 60 seconds. Input values for the condition script can be set in object properties. Such values
are accessible via $1, $2, . . . variables inside the script. If the script returns 0, an activation event with the defined
severity is created. If the script returns any other value, then a deactivation event is created.
Menu items:
Condition can be mangedunmanaged. If condition is unmanaged, evaluation of condition is not run. Condition can
be deleted.

5.2.10 Container

Containers can be created in Infrastructure Services tree. Existing nodes and subnets can be added to containers
by using Bind operation, and removed by using Unbind operation. New nodes, conditions, clusters, containers,
mobile devices and racks can also be created. They can be created using required menu item of container under
which this object should appear. Containers and nodes inside them can be moved by Move to another container
menu item or using drag&drop.
Menu items:
There are special menu item for each object that can be created in container. Objects like rack, container, mobile
device, cluster are manually created objects. Node can be manually created or found by network discovery. In case
if it is required to add already existing object to container use Bind. . . menu item. To remove node from container,
but do not delete it use Unbind. . . menu item.
Using Manage/Unmanage all nodes will be managed/unmanaged under container. Container can be deleted. If
deleted container was the only one parent of the object, then this object will be also deleted. Upload file. . . will
upload file from server to all nodes under container, same as each tool under Tools menu item will be executed on
each node.
Geolocation will show location of container on geographic map.

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Alarms will open alarm view with all active alarms for all children of this container. 802.1x port state will open
table with port authentication states of all devices that are under this container. This information can be exported
to CSV.

5.3 Object Details

Object details view provides main information about object. Each object has Overview tab that gisplays general
information about object (like: ID, GUID, Class, and status of the object) and Comments.

5.3.1 Subnet

5.4 Object Tools

There can be created tools that will be executed on objects. Tools are shown under “Tools” item of node menu.
There are some pre defined object tools, but they can be disabled or configured new by NetXMS administrator.

5.5 Last DCI values View

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 CHAPTER

SIX

NETWORK TOPOLOGY

6.1 Introduction

NetXMS server automatically creates and maintains network model on different layers. All necessary information
taken from ARP cache, routing tables, and switch forwarding database of managed nodes. Topology data pro-
vided by CDP, LLDP, and NDP (SONMP) protocols also used in building network model. Having network model
instantly available allows NetXMS users to perform various network topology tasks much faster and easier.

6.2 How topology information built

6.3 Find where node is connected

It is possible to find switch port where any given node is connected (sometimes called “connection point” in
management console). To find out node’s connection point, right-click on node object, and select Find switch port
in pop-up menu. Message box with search results will pop up, and if port is found, search results view will be
opened (or updated if already open). Search results view looks like this:

Columns have the following meaning:

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Seq. Search result sequence number

Node Name of end node object
Interface Name of node’s interface object
MAC Interface’s MAC address
IP Interface’s IP address
Switch Name of switch node object
Port Name of interface object representing switch port
Type Connection type - direct or indirect. Direct connection type means that NetXMS
server did not detect any other devices on sdame switch port, and most likely end
node connected directly to the switch. Indirect means that some other devices was
detected on same switch port. Virtual machines and virtual machine host will al-
ways be detected as indirect.

6.4 Find MAC address

It is possible to find location of any known MAC address in the network. To do this, select Tools → Find MAC
address. Results of a search will be displayed in the same results view. It is not necessary that node with given
MAC address be managed by NetXMS server, but if it is, appropriate details will be displayed.

6.5 Find IP address

It is possible to find location of any known IP address in the network. To do this, select Tools → Find IP address.
Results of a search will be displayed in the same results view. It is not necessary that node with given IP address
be managed by NetXMS server, but if it is, appropriate details will be displayed.

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 CHAPTER

SEVEN

GLOSSARY

Alarm Browser
View, which shows all active alarms in the system and provides tools to interact with them
DCI
Data Collection Item, configuration element, which contains parameter to collect (for example “CPU Us-
age”), collection schedule and thresholds
Entire Network
Automatically generated hierarchy that contains all nodes known to NetXMS
Metric
One entity of collected data
Node
Object that represents physical server
Object
Representation of logical or physical entity.
Trim Stack
View Stack in minimized state, represented as a set of buttons, one for each View in the stack
View Stack
Multiple views combined into single one, with tab navigation on top of it

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46 Chapter 7. Glossary
 INDEX

A
Alarm Browser, 45

D
DCI, 45

E
Entire Network, 45

M
Metric, 45

N
Node, 45

O
Object, 45

T
Trim Stack, 45

V
View Stack, 45

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