Chapter 7. Troubleshooting and frequently asked questions

Table of Contents

7.1. Troubleshooting sFlowTrend-Pro
7.1.1. No switches are listed in the Switch selector
7.1.2. When I select a switch in the Charts tab, the chart is blank
7.1.3. When I select a switch in the Interfaces tab, the table is empty
7.1.4. When I select a switch in the Interfaces tab, the table rows have no counter values.
7.1.5. sFlowTrend-Pro is not receiving sFlow from switch
7.1.6. sFlowTrend-Pro cannot communicate with the switch using SNMP
7.2. Frequently asked questions

7.1. Troubleshooting sFlowTrend-Pro

7.1.1. No switches are listed in the Switch selector

If there are no switches listed in the Switch selector in the Charts, Interfaces, and Threshold tabs, all the charts in the Dashboard tab show Waiting for first data point and the Activity LED is not flashing then sFlowTrend-Pro is not receiving sFlow data. The Status bar should also show Configure switches/routers to monitor.

You must first configure your switches to send sFlow, see Section A.1, “Configuring switches to send sFlow”. If there are still no switches listed see Section 7.1.5, “sFlowTrend-Pro is not receiving sFlow from switch”.

7.1.2. When I select a switch in the Charts tab, the chart is blank

If you select a switch using the Switch selector in the Charts tab and a blank screen is displayed, sFlowTrend-Pro has not received sFlow data that matches the criteria specified by the current settings in the Charts tab.

  • If the Interface selector is also empty, sFlowTrend-Pro is not receiving sFlow data from the switch. First ensure that the selected switch is enabled (see Section 3.1, “Selecting the switch and interface to analyse”. If the switch is enabled see Section 7.1.5, “sFlowTrend-Pro is not receiving sFlow from switch”.

  • If there are interfaces listed in the Interface selector, sFlowTrend-Pro has received sFlow data from the switch, but possibly not for the combination of the currently selected interface, chart, time, and filter. First make sure that the selected switch is enabled so that button is showing next to the Switch selector and that the Status bar indicates that the switch is not disabled. Then change the settings in the control bar as follows:

    • Charts: Top sources

    • Interfaces: All (this selection is only available if you are viewing a top N traffic trend chart).

    • Time: Last hour

    • Filter is disabled

    For more information on settings in the Charts tab see Chapter 3, Charts.

    Now wait for the Progress indicator to reach 100%.

    If the Top sources chart is still not showing data, then sFlowTrend-Pro is not receiving sFlow from the switch, see Section 7.1.5, “sFlowTrend-Pro is not receiving sFlow from switch”.

    If you are now seeing data in the Top sources chart, sFlowTrend-Pro is receiving sFlow data from the switch. To understand which interfaces are reporting on traffic, change to the Interfaces tab and click on the Unicasts/s column heading until the table is sorted so that rows are listed with the interface showing the highest unicasts/s listed first. If there are interfaces listed in table but there are no counter values, wait for the Progress indicator to reach 100% again (see Chapter 4, Switch interface statistics for more information on the Interfaces tab). Then click on the chart button associated with first row. You will now be taken to the Charts tab with the interface with the most unicast/s selected.

7.1.3. When I select a switch in the Interfaces tab, the table is empty

If you select a switch using the Switch selector in the Interfaces tab and the table remains empty even after the Progress indicator has reached 100%, sFlowTrend-Pro is not receiving sFlow from that switch.

If Status bar message indicates that the switch is disabled, enable the switch by clicking on the click the button next to the Switch selector.

If the switch is enabled, then see Section 7.1.5, “sFlowTrend-Pro is not receiving sFlow from switch”.

7.1.4. When I select a switch in the Interfaces tab, the table rows have no counter values.

If you select a switch using the Switch selector in the Interfaces tab and the table includes rows for the interfaces but the interface counter columns show "-" even after the Progress indicator has reached 100%, twice, sFlowTrend-Pro is receiving sFlow from the switch but the sFlow data does not include interface counters. Check that the switch is configured to export interface counters (see Section A.1, “Configuring switches to send sFlow”

7.1.5. sFlowTrend-Pro is not receiving sFlow from switch

If the switch has been configured using the CLI to send sFlow, follow the steps below:

  1. Ensure that the switch is using the correct IP address and UDP port used by the host running sFlowTrend-Pro. To view and configure the IP address and UDP port used by sFlowTrend-Pro see Section 6.2.3, “Configuring advanced options”.

  2. Ensure that there are no host or network firewalls between the switch and sFlowTrend-Pro that are blocking the sFlow packets.

  3. There may be insufficient traffic flowing through the switch for sFlow packets to be generated using the currently configured sampling rate. Try configuring the switch to sample more frequently. See Section A.2, “Recommended sampling rates” for recommended sampling rates.

If the switch is to be configured to send sFlow by sFlowTrend-Pro using SNMP follow the steps below:

  1. Make sure that the switch has been added to sFlowTrend-Pro, see Section 6.1.1, “Adding a switch that is to be configured using SNMP” and that the correct SNMP read/write community has been specified. Some additional configuration of the switch may be necessary to allow it to accept SNMP sets from the host running sFlowTrend-Pro, for example, see Section A.1.1.1, “Configuring ProCurve switches to allow sFlow configuration via SNMP”.

  2. Use Tools Configure switches and view the status details for the switch either by moving the mouse over the status colour indicator to activate the tooltip or by clicking on the edit button. If the status indicates that the switch is not sending sFlow use the additional status message to identify the problem:

    No SNMP
    sFlowTrend-Pro cannot communicate with the switch using SNMP. Verify that the sFlowTrend-Pro is using the correct community string and that there are no firewalls in the network or on the host that are blocking SNMP.
    Cannot configure sFlow with SNMP - SNMP write access denied
    sFlowTrend-Pro is not using the correct SNMP read/write community or the switch is not configured to allow SNMP set from the system running sFlowTrend-Pro.
    Cannot configure sFlow with SNMP - no sFlow MIB
    The switch cannot be configured via SNMP to send sFlow. Instead, you must use the switch CLI to configure sFlow (see Section A.1, “Configuring switches to send sFlow”.
    Already in use
    Another application has already configured this switch to send sFlow and there are no additional resources to send sFlow to sFlowTrend-Pro as well. Disable the other application so that the switch can be configured by sFlowTrend-Pro.

  3. If the status indicates that sFlow has been successfully configured, there may be insufficient traffic flowing through the switch for sFlow packets to be generated using the currently configured sampling rate. Try changing the sFlowTrend-Pro configuration so that the switch to is configured to sample more frequently (see Section 8.3, “Custom configuration”).

7.1.6. sFlowTrend-Pro cannot communicate with the switch using SNMP

If sFlowTrend-Pro cannot communicate with the switch using SNMP, it will be unable to display friendly names for the switch and its interfaces. It will also not be able to configure the switch using SNMP to send sFlow. Verify that the that the sFlowTrend-Pro is using the correct community string and that there are no firewalls in the network or on the host that are blocking SNMP.