Configure Threshold-Based Event Notifications

You define the scope in the Choose Attributes step when creating a TCA event rule. You can choose to apply the rule to all devices or narrow the scope using attributes. If you choose to narrow the scope, but then do not enter any values for the available attributes, the result is all devices and attributes.

Scopes appear in TCA rule cards using the following format: Attribute, Operation, Value.

In this example, three attributes are available. For one or more of these attributes, select the operation (equals or starts with) and enter a value. For drop reasons, click in the value field to open a list of reasons, and select one from the list.

Note that you should leave the drop type attribute blank.

Refer to WJH Event Messages Reference for WJH drop types and reasons. Leaving an attribute value blank defaults to all; all hostnames, interfaces, sensors, forwarding resources, ACL resources, and so forth.

Each attribute is displayed on the rule card as a regular expression equivalent to your choices above:

• Equals is displayed as an equals sign (=)
• Starts with is displayed as a caret (^)
• Blank (all) is displayed as an asterisk (*)

Scopes are defined with regular expressions. When more than one scoping parameter is available, they must be separated by a comma (without spaces), and all parameters must be defined in order. When an asterisk (*) is used alone, it must be entered inside either single or double quotes. Single quotes are used here.

To create a TCA rule:

1. Click to open the Main Menu.

2. Click Threshold Crossing Rules under Notifications.

3. Select the event type for the rule you want to create. Note that the total count of rules for each event type is also shown.

4. Click Create a Rule or (Add rule) to add a rule.

   The Create TCA Rule dialog opens. Four steps create the rule.

5. On the Enter Details step, enter a name for your rule and assign a severity. Verify the event type.

6. Click Next.

7. On the Choose Attribute step, select the attribute to measure against.

8. Click Next.

9. On the Set Threshold step, enter a threshold value.

10. Define the scope of the rule.

    • If you want to restrict the rule based on a particular parameter, enter values for one or more of the available attributes. For What Just Happened rules, select a reason from the available list.

    • If you want the rule to apply to all devices, click the scope toggle.

11. Click Next.

12. Optionally, select a notification channel where you want the events to be sent.

    Only previously created channels are available for selection. If no channel is available or selected, the notifications can only be retrieved from the database. You can add a channel at a later time and then add it to the rule. Refer to Create a Channel and Modify TCA Rules.

13. Click Finish.

This example shows two interface statistics rules. The rule on the left triggers an informational event when the total received bytes exceeds the upper threshold of 5 M on any switches. The rule on the right triggers an alarm event when any switch exceeds the total received broadcast bytes af 560 K, indicating a broadcast storm. Note that the cards indicate both rules are currently Active.

The simplest configuration you can create is one that sends a TCA event generated by all devices and all interfaces to a single notification application. Use the netq add tca command to configure the event. Its syntax is:

netq add tca [event_id <text-event-id-anchor>] [scope <text-scope-anchor>] [tca_id <text-tca-id-anchor>] [severity info | severity critical] [is_active true | is_active false] [suppress_until <text-suppress-ts>] [threshold_type user_set | threshold_type vendor_set] [threshold <text-threshold-value>] [channel <text-channel-name-anchor> | channel drop <text-drop-channel-name>]

Note that the event ID is case sensitive and must be in all uppercase.

For example, this rule tells NetQ to deliver an event notification to the tca_slack_ifstats pre-configured Slack channel when the CPU utilization exceeds 95% of its capacity on any monitored switch:

cumulus@switch:~$ netq add tca event_id TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_UPPER scope '*' channel tca_slack_ifstats threshold 95

This rule tells NetQ to deliver an event notification to the tca_pd_ifstats PagerDuty channel when the number of transmit bytes per second (Bps) on the leaf12 switch exceeds 20,000 Bps on any interface:

cumulus@switch:~$ netq add tca event_id TCA_TXBYTES_UPPER scope leaf12,'*' channel tca_pd_ifstats threshold 20000

This rule tells NetQ to deliver an event notification to the syslog-netq syslog channel when the temperature on sensor temp1 on the leaf12 switch exceeds 32 degrees Celcius:

cumulus@switch:~$ netq add tca event_id TCA_SENSOR_TEMPERATURE_UPPER scope leaf12,temp1 channel syslog-netq threshold 32

This rule tells NetQ to deliver an event notification to the tca-slack channel when the total number of ACL drops on the leaf04 switch exceeds 20,000 for any reason, ingress port, or drop type.

cumulus@switch:~$ netq add tca event_id TCA_WJH_ACL_DROP_AGG_UPPER scope leaf04,'*','*','*' channel tca-slack threshold 20000

For a Slack channel, the event messages should be similar to this:

Set the Severity of a Threshold-based Event

In addition to defining a scope for TCA rule, you can also set a severity of either info or critical. To add a severity to a rule, use the severity option.

For example, if you want to add a critical severity to the CPU utilization rule you created earlier:

cumulus@switch:~$ netq add tca event_id TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_UPPER scope '*' severity critical channel tca_slack_resources threshold 95

Or if an event is important, but not critical. Set the severity to info:

cumulus@switch:~$ netq add tca event_id TCA_TXBYTES_UPPER scope leaf12,'*' severity info channel tca_pd_ifstats threshold 20000

Set the Threshold for Digital Optics Events

Digital optics have the additional option of applying user- or vendor-defined thresholds, using the threshold_type and threshold options.

This example shows how to send an alarm event on channel ch1 when the upper threshold for module voltage exceeds the vendor-defined thresholds for interface swp31 on the mlx-2700-04 switch.

cumulus@switch:~$ netq add tca event_id TCA_DOM_MODULE_VOLTAGE_ALARM_UPPER scope 'mlx-2700-04,swp31' severity critical is_active true threshold_type vendor_set channel ch1
Successfully added/updated tca

This example shows how to send an alarm event on channel ch1 when the upper threshold for module voltage exceeds the user-defined threshold of 3V for interface swp31 on the mlx-2700-04 switch.

cumulus@switch:~$ netq add tca event_id TCA_DOM_MODULE_VOLTAGE_ALARM_UPPER scope 'mlx-2700-04,swp31' severity critical is_active true threshold_type user_set threshold 3 channel ch1
Successfully added/updated tca

1. Click .

2. Select Threshold Crossing Rules under Notifications.

   A card appears for every rule.

When you have at least one rule created, you can use the filters that appear above the rule cards to find the rules of interest. Filter by status, severity, channel, and/or events. When a filter is applied a badge indicating the number of items in the filter is shown on the filter dropdown.

To view TCA rules, run:

netq show tca [tca_id <text-tca-id-anchor>] [json]

This example displays all TCA rules:

cumulus@switch:~$ netq show tca
Matching config_tca records:
TCA Name                     Event Name           Scope                      Severity Channel/s          Active Threshold          Unit     Threshold Type Suppress Until
---------------------------- -------------------- -------------------------- -------- ------------------ ------ ------------------ -------- -------------- ----------------------------
TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_UPPER_1  TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_ {"hostname":"leaf01"}      info     pd-netq-events,slk True   87                 %        user_set       Fri Oct  9 15:39:35 2020
                             UPPER                                                    -netq-events
TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_UPPER_2  TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_ {"hostname":"*"}           critical slk-netq-events    True   93                 %        user_set       Fri Oct  9 15:39:56 2020
                             UPPER
TCA_DOM_BIAS_CURRENT_ALARM_U TCA_DOM_BIAS_CURRENT {"hostname":"leaf*","ifnam critical slk-netq-events    True   0                  mA       vendor_set     Fri Oct  9 16:02:37 2020
PPER_1                       _ALARM_UPPER         e":"*"}
TCA_DOM_RX_POWER_ALARM_UPPER TCA_DOM_RX_POWER_ALA {"hostname":"*","ifname":" info     slk-netq-events    True   0                  mW       vendor_set     Fri Oct  9 15:25:26 2020
_1                           RM_UPPER             *"}
TCA_SENSOR_TEMPERATURE_UPPER TCA_SENSOR_TEMPERATU {"hostname":"leaf","s_name critical slk-netq-events    True   32                 degreeC  user_set       Fri Oct  9 15:40:18 2020
_1                           RE_UPPER             ":"temp1"}
TCA_TCAM_IPV4_ROUTE_UPPER_1  TCA_TCAM_IPV4_ROUTE_ {"hostname":"*"}           critical pd-netq-events     True   20000              %        user_set       Fri Oct  9 16:13:39 2020
                             UPPER

This example displays a specific TCA rule:

cumulus@switch:~$ netq show tca tca_id TCA_TXMULTICAST_UPPER_1
Matching config_tca records:
TCA Name                     Event Name           Scope                      Severity         Channel/s          Active Threshold          Suppress Until
---------------------------- -------------------- -------------------------- ---------------- ------------------ ------ ------------------ ----------------------------
TCA_TXMULTICAST_UPPER_1      TCA_TXMULTICAST_UPPE {"ifname":"swp3","hostname info             tca-tx-bytes-slack True   0                  Sun Dec  8 16:40:14 2269
                             R                    ":"leaf01"}

To modify the threshold:

1. Click to open the Main Menu.

2. Click Threshold Crossing Rules under Notifications.

3. Locate the rule you want to modify and hover over the card.

4. Click .

5. Enter a new threshold value.

6. Click Update Rule.

To modify the threshold, run:

netq add tca tca_id <text-tca-id-anchor> threshold <text-threshold-value>

This example changes the threshold for the rule TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_UPPER_1 to a value of 96 percent. This overwrites the existing threshold value.

cumulus@switch:~$ netq add tca tca_id TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_UPPER_1 threshold 96

To modify the scope:

1. Click to open the Main Menu.

2. Click Threshold Crossing Rules under Notifications.

3. Locate the rule you want to modify and hover over the card.

4. Click .

5. Change the scope, applying the rule to all devices or broadening or narrowing the scope. Refer to Specify the Scope for details.

6. Click Update Rule.

To modify the scope, run:

netq add tca event_id <text-event-id-anchor> scope <text-scope-anchor> threshold <text-threshold-value>

This example changes the scope for the rule TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_UPPER to apply only to switches beginning with a hostname of leaf. You must also provide a threshold value. This example case uses a value of 95 percent. Note that this overwrites the existing scope and threshold values.

cumulus@switch:~$ netq add tca event_id TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_UPPER scope hostname^leaf threshold 95
Successfully added/updated tca

cumulus@switch:~$ netq show tca

Matching config_tca records:
TCA Name                     Event Name           Scope                      Severity         Channel/s          Active Threshold          Suppress Until
---------------------------- -------------------- -------------------------- ---------------- ------------------ ------ ------------------ ----------------------------
TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_UPPER_1  TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_ {"hostname":"*"}           critical         onprem-email       True   93                 Mon Aug 31 20:59:57 2020
                             UPPER
TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_UPPER_2  TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_ {"hostname":"hostname^leaf info                                True   95                 Tue Sep  1 18:47:24 2020
                             UPPER                "}

1. Click to open the Main Menu.

2. Click Threshold Crossing Rules under Notifications.

3. Locate the rule you want to modify and hover over the card.

4. Click .

5. Click Channels.

6. Select one or more channels.

   Click a channel to select it. Click again to unselect a channel.

7. Click Update Rule.

To change a channel association, run:

netq add tca tca_id <text-tca-id-anchor> channel <text-channel-name-anchor>

This overwrites the existing channel association.

This example shows the changing of the channel for the disk utilization 1 rule to a PagerDuty channel pd-netq-events.

cumulus@switch:~$ netq add tca tca_id TCA_DISK_UTILIZATION_UPPER_1 channel pd-netq-events
Successfully added/updated tca TCA_DISK_UTILIZATION_UPPER_1

To remove a channel association (stop sending events to a particular channel), run:

netq add tca tca_id <text-tca-id-anchor> channel drop <text-drop-channel-name>

This example removes the tca_slack_resources channel from the disk utilization 1 rule.

cumulus@switch:~$ netq add tca tca_id TCA_DISK_UTILIZATION_UPPER_1 channel drop tca_slack_resources
Successfully added/updated tca TCA_DISK_UTILIZATION_UPPER_1

The TCA rules have three possible states in the NetQ UI:

• Active: Rule is operating, delivering events. This is the normal operating state.
• Suppressed: Rule is disabled until a designated date and time. When that time occurs, the rule is automatically reenabled. This state is useful during troubleshooting or maintenance of a switch when you do not want erroneous events being generated.
• Disabled: Rule is disabled until a user manually reenables it. This state is useful when you are unclear when you want the rule to be reenabled. This is not the same as deleting the rule.

To suppress a rule for a designated amount of time, you must change the state of the rule.

To suppress a rule:

1. Click to open the Main Menu.

2. Click Threshold Crossing Rules under Notifications.

3. Locate the rule you want to suppress.

4. Click Disable.

5. Click in the Date/Time field to set when you want the rule to be automatically reenabled.

6. Click Disable.

Using the suppress_until option allows you to prevent the rule from being applied for a designated amout of time (in seconds). When this time has passed, the rule is automatically reenabled.

To suppress a rule, run:

netq add tca tca_id <text-tca-id-anchor> suppress_until <text-suppress-ts>

This example suppresses the maximum cpu utilization event for 24 hours:

cumulus@switch:~$ netq add tca tca_id TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_UPPER_2 suppress_until 86400
Successfully added/updated tca TCA_CPU_UTILIZATION_UPPER_2

The TCA rules have three possible states in the NetQ UI:

• Active: Rule is operating, delivering events. This is the normal operating state.
• Suppressed: Rule is disabled until a designated date and time. When that time occurs, the rule is automatically reenabled. This state is useful during troubleshooting or maintenance of a switch when you do not want erroneous events being generated.
• Disabled: Rule is disabled until a user manually reenables it. This state is useful when you are unclear when you want the rule to be reenabled. This is not the same as deleting the rule.

To disable a rule that is currently active:

1. Click to open the Main Menu.

2. Click Threshold Crossing Rules under Notifications.

3. Locate the rule you want to disable.

4. Click Disable.

5. Leave the Date/Time field blank.

6. Click Disable.

To disable a rule that is currently suppressed:

1. Click to open the Main Menu.

2. Click Threshold Crossing Rules under Notifications.

3. Locate the rule you want to disable.

4. Click Disable Forever.

   Note the changes in the card:

   • The state is now marked as Inactive and is red
   • The rule definition is grayed out
   • The Disable option has changed to Enable to reactivate the rule when you are ready

To disable a rule, run:

netq add tca tca_id <text-tca-id-anchor> is_active false

This example disables the maximum disk utilization 1 rule:

cumulus@switch:~$ netq add tca tca_id TCA_DISK_UTILIZATION_UPPER_1 is_active false
Successfully added/updated tca TCA_DISK_UTILIZATION_UPPER_1

To reenable the rule, set the is_active option to true.

The rule can be in any of the three states, active, suppressed, or disabled.

To delete a rule:

1. Click to open the Main Menu.

2. Click Threshold Crossing Rules under Notifications.

3. Locate the rule you want to remove and hover over the card.

4. Click .

To remove a rule altogether, run:

netq del tca tca_id <text-tca-id-anchor>

This example deletes the maximum receive bytes rule:

cumulus@switch:~$ netq del tca tca_id TCA_RXBYTES_UPPER_1
Successfully deleted TCA TCA_RXBYTES_UPPER_1